For the study of thesis entitled

A STUDY OF CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
PRACTICES (CRMP) OF INDIAN OIL
CORPORATION(IOC)

For award of the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN

COMMERCE

SUBMITTED BY:

MOHD JAVED KHAN

 ABSTRACT

The last decade has seen the emergence of Customer Relationship Management

(CRM) as a technique to underpin organizational performance improvement in

improving customer retention, customer satisfaction, and customer value.

However, evidence suggests that many CRM initiatives fail to achieve desired

results.

Furthermore, empirical research is still scarce. In recent years, CRM has been

the favored theme for numerous studies and reports. It has also been

considered as a way of capturing comparative advantages in the face of the

growing competition.

However, despite many studies conducted on CRM in various industries in the

past 20 years, there is still significant disagreement about its definition and

meaning, and the framework for the effective implementation and evaluation of

CRM practice. Customer relationship management (CRM) has once again

gained prominence amongst academics and practitioners. However, there is a

tremendous amount of confusion regarding its domain and meaning. In this

study, the authors explore the conceptual foundations of CRM by examining

the literature on relationship marketing and other disciplines that contribute to

the knowledge of CRM. A CRM process framework is proposed that builds on

other relationship development process models.

The concept of CRM is premised on a simple logic of business- it must keep

tracking customers once attracted; retain them in business portfolio; and,

profit from their growth. Maintaining relationships with customers and offering

them complete customer satisfaction seems to be the foremost agenda on the

minds of petroleum companies these days. Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) seems to offer the much needed strategy and solution to

keep customers happy, smiling and connected with the organization across

their lifetime. CRM has multiple facets and implications for the petroleum

companies who always seem to be eager to go that extra mile in order to be

able to retain their customer base, prevent cannibalization from competitors

and for keeping their loyal customers coming back to them for more. The

authors have studied two cases of competing petroleum companies in India

and the effect of implementation of CRM strategy and practices. It was

observed that customer satisfaction increased with the successful

implementation of CRM practices across the organization.

Today in the highly competitive market, increasing customer demands retail

outlets realize the importance of customer relationship management. The lack

of understanding on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is always a

concern among the service providers especially retail outlets, retailers have

their own way of managing their relationships with the customers.

Customer Relation Marketing in the Petroleum industries in India has passed

through many stages and made various strides to enhance its operations so
that members and the general public are benefiting from in a broad

perspective. Although the government has been involved in streamlining the

Customer Relation Marketing in the petroleum industry, it is marred by

inefficiencies. Based on this concern, the study meant to establish the factors

affecting effective distribution of petroleum products in India with reference to

Indian Oil Corporation.

Two key objectives motivate the GoI’s policy in India’s downstream petroleum

sector:

(a) Ensuring India’s growing refined product demand is met at affordable prices

over time; and (b) establishing India as a major global refined product exporter.

Aside from its fiscal implications, India’s current petroleum product pricing

regime has implications for the achievement of these goals, and for the

emergence of timely refining investments that are crucial to their achievement.

The study used both primary and secondary data as its source and semi

structured questionnaires as the main instrument of data collection. The

collected data will be edited for analysis. In depth open-ended questions were

used to collect the data. The analysis of the data gathered went through two

main stages. The first stage was to transcribe the data collected from all the

organizations chosen and produce detailed write-ups for each case. In every

case the write-ups were similarly structured to help the researcher in the

second stage, the cross-case analysis. The cross-case analysis was based on

the researcher’s proposed conceptual CRM model.

Our approach was basically descriptive in nature. Available time-series data on

relevant variables were critically examined to ascertain the economic

implications of the various petroleum policies. Our findings reveal three major

economic implications: first is observed rapid expansion of the number of

economic actors in the Indian petroleum industry; secondly, we observed rapid

development of the transport system; and, thirdly, there were improvements in

the gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment, and employment

levels.

Analysis is conducted to examine the impacts of CRM on innovation process.

The statistical results indicate that not all CRM activities make contributions to

each stage within innovation process. It is found that 1) information sharing

effectively enhances both innovation throughput and innovation output. 2)

Customer involvement and joint problem-solving exert positive influence on

innovation throughput stage, while long-term partnership has significant

effects on innovation output. 3) CRM activities have no impact on innovation

initiation and input. 4) Technology-based CRM is the least effective mechanism

during the innovation process.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The point of this study is to illuminate the examination system important to

this study, which is the purpose for the achievement or disappointment of CRM
activities in diverse organizations from the management viewpoint, with the

aim to study organizations in diverse industries and distinctive nations.

CRM, as a rising control, is in extraordinary need of hypothetical help.

Directing hypotheses and models are in short supply in the field, most likely

because of the truth that it is another range for examination and due to its

trade with IT and data systems, which have been quickly creating. The focal

examination question for this study is: Why and how do CRM activities succeed

then again fall flat? Inquire about around there will help building flourishing

customer relationships what's more long haul corporate survival. Furthermore,

discriminating achievement elements for CRM activities are to be drawn from

the exploration discoveries.

The aims and objectives will be researched in the Indian Petroleum Corporate

Sector, which are Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum

Corporation Limited, IBP Company Limited, MRPL, BRPL, AOD all Government

of India Enterprise under the nomenclature of Public Sector Oil Companies. In

order to arrive at an empirical outcome of the study, the data collected from the

customers impacting the Customer relationships between the company and

customers shall be analyzed, which was collected from the Sample data

collected directly from the customers in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Data has been taken from company’s internal records, from Government of

India records and also from sources, which from petroleum company point of

view were authenticate and relevant. The basic aim of the research is to
understand the significance of CRM for the chosen corporate and its relevance

in current business strategic context. From the collected data, it was seen

whether business performance could be enhanced using CRM practices in this

organization. In order to empirically prove that the business performance is

enhanced: the company’s secondary data has been used.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The research theories were defined concerning the particular relationships in

the theoretical structure. These relationships between the variables are the

significant concerns of the study. The study is principally focused around the

commence that the services by the oil organizations are the -free variable- and

fulfillment of the customers at the retail outlet in different company is the ward

variable.

Fulfillment of the customers is free variable, which is affected by the

components influencing their relationship with the company. The execution of

the company under study is the ward variable. In the study, to land at the

uniform base of the execution of the oil organizations, sales and profit before

premium and expenses, Sales Volume and Market Share. The dependendent

variables as characterized in the study are autonomous of one another. The

speculations as specified below are intelligent of this reason and are tested in

point of interest in the ensuing chapters.

The researcher suggest that performance and productivity of service station is

related to different potential variables: the owner/managers, the station,

location and the competition-/competitors.

H1: A manager/owner becomes a dealer service station years of experience

before are positively correlated with performance and labor productivity.

H2: Build-up area (size) in square feet of the service

stations is positively correlated with service

stations performance and labor productivity.

H3: There is a positive relationship between

performance and labor productivity and

inventory of non-fuel products in the service

station.

H4: The number of islands is positively correlated with service stations

performance and labor productivity.

H5: The traffic density where the service stations

situated will be positively correlated with service

stations performance and labour productivity.

H6: There is a positive relationship between service station

location and performance and labour productivity.

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

One of the prerequisite to design a good questionnaire is deciding what is to be

measured. There are basically various approaches to developing initial

indicators in questionnaire design. These are -

1. Using observation or unstructured interview.

2. The Customer Profile.

3. The factor important in the Fuel buying process.

4. The demographic profile.

Questionnaire items for this research were initially developed based on

measures developed in previous researches made by researchers. The final

version of the questionnaire items however were modified to fit this particular

context of research and thus they had gone through pilot testing and

evaluation.

On the other hand, before the questionnaires were developed, a series of

personal interviews were conducted with oil company executives and

academicians. Three criteria were applied in developing the questionnaires,

included: 1) test administration between 10 to 15minutes, (2) elimination of

variables with apparent low predictive value, and (3) a questionnaire easily

understood by the service station managers or owners.

The questions have been kept to the minimum as possible, so that the

respondents will not find it difficult and boring to answer all of them.

To increase reliability, the questionnaire was carefully developed through two

pretests and checked twice by the supervisor. One of the major concerns of the

study was response rate. From discussion of availability, response rate was

satisfacted. On the other hand, the questionnaire length was limited to

increase the response rate and at the end the trade-off was made.

The Pilot Study - every questionnaire should be pretested. For this reason, the

primary pretesting was done.Thepreliminary questionnaire designed for the

pilot test were sent personally to the various service stations at surrounding

area.

The interview was conducted by using the structured questionnaire. In the

testing, they were asked to responds to what they thought about the questions

and the questionnaires a whole. Any difficulties such as problems of

understanding the questions, prognosis of possible reactions to the questions

and other suggestions for improvement found during the test was taken

seriously and used them to modify the questionnaire.

BACKGROUND OF THE SAMPLE

Based on the research hypotheses, respondents from managers/owners of

petroleum retailing industry were questioned with 30 questions to indicate

their performance and productivity in the industry and their opinions about

the overall industry as a whole. For the analysis of control variables (mostly

demographic), all respondents were asked to indicate their demographic

profiles.

MULTIVARIATE CORRELATION AND REGRESSION ANALYSIS ON THE

VARIABLES.

In order to explore the multivariate relationships between the performance

measures and the surrogate variables, and to test hypotheses detailed in the

research literature, the data were further subjected to multiple correlation and

regression analysis. This statistical technique was chosen because it allows the

association of each independent variable with the performance indicator to be

examined while controlling for the effects of the other independent variables.

The multivariate regression equations presented below were calculated using

the 'stepwise method', and the technique starts by regressing the variables with

highest correlation against the dependent variable. A new independent variable

is added or deleted at each step in order that the null hypothesis of no

explanation can be rejected. The stepwise method was chosen because it is

more susceptible to sample-specific error than the regular multiple regression.

It has greater potential for capitalization on change and it can produce results

that are specific to the sample employed (Hall 1994)1.

When a regression analysis was run for VOLITRE with 0.05 as the limit for

variable inclusion, only five variables entered the equation. However, when the

limit was relaxed to 0.10, there are six variables was entered the step-wise

regression equation. The results also improve R2 from 0.84 to 0.86 and reduce

the standard error from 0.78 to 0.75. From this test and discussion in section

7.3.1 above, the 0.10 level of significance was the selected level for the

inclusion of significant independent surrogate variables. Furthermore, this

level of significance was chosen because this study used a small sample and

the researcher was afraid that some of the important variables will be excluded

if using the higher level of significance such as 0.01 or 0.05 level of significance

(as shown from the test mentioned above). Moreover, a few retail researchers

especially in petroleum retailing such as Ingene and Brown (1987) and Acar

(1993) also used this level in their study.

ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESES TESTING

The set of hypotheses concerning the impact of independent variables on

performance in retailing. There are thirteen hypotheses already developed

earlier. The hypotheses are divided into two groups: the internal environmental

factors (manager and store) and the external environmental factors (location

and competition). The former reflect the "controllable factors" and the latter

include "uncontrollable factors". One of the purpose of an exploration study

was to establish a basis for future rigorous hypothesis testing. Using these

constructs, we developed other regression models to examine the impact of

internal and external environmental on performance. As mentioned earlier in

this research, the first approach suggested byGhosh and Me Lafferty (1987) will

be used in this section. The stepwise regression will be replaced by 2-stage

regression in order to put all variables in one equation. The variables used in

this section were selected by using judgment and management consideration

and were found to be very important variables which impact on performance

from the previous studies.

CONCLUSIONS

Refinery is an energy intensive industry, where electricity, steam, fuel oil & gas

are used as the main sources of energy. Basic source of above forms of energy

is hydrocarbon (petroleum

oil) therefore optimization of energy is basically conservation of hydrocarbon,

which in turn contributes in minimizing fuel and loss (OFL) and thereby

improves profitability of the company. Most of energy optimization schemes

need only systematic study and continuous effort of improvement without or

with little cost involvement. Therefore it is recommended to implement energy

optimization schemes in petroleum sectors in order to bring improvement in

the profitability. Maximizing sells of products can increase profit; of course, the

selling price must be higher

than the production costs. However maximizing capacity utilization of the

plants can maximize volumes of products.

Energy companies will need to build sound investor and analyst relationships

and convince capital markets that they have clear strategies to succeed if they

wish to avoid lower share prices. Retailing activities will separate from back

office service provision as well as from network service provision.

 For the study of thesis entitled

A STUDY OF CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
PRACTICES (CRMP) OF INDIAN OIL
CORPORATION(IOC)

For award of the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN

COMMERCE

SUBMITTED BY:

MOHD JAVED KHAN

 ABSTRACT

The last decade has seen the emergence of Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) as a technique to underpin organizational

performance improvement in improving customer retention, customer

satisfaction, and customer value. However, evidence suggests that

many CRM initiatives fail to achieve desired results.

Furthermore, empirical research is still scarce. In recent years, CRM

has been the favored theme for numerous studies and reports. It has

also been considered as a way of capturing comparative advantages in

the face of the growing competition.

However, despite many studies conducted on CRM in various

industries in the past 20 years, there is still significant disagreement

about its definition and meaning, and the framework for the effective

implementation and evaluation of CRM practice. Customer

relationship management (CRM) has once again gained prominence

amongst academics and practitioners. However, there is a tremendous

amount of confusion regarding its domain and meaning. In this study,

the authors explore the conceptual foundations of CRM by examining

the literature on relationship marketing and other disciplines that

contribute to the knowledge of CRM. A CRM process framework is

proposed that builds on other relationship development process

models.

2
The concept of CRM is premised on a simple logic of business- it must

keep tracking customers once attracted; retain them in business

portfolio; and, profit from their growth. Maintaining relationships with

customers and offering them complete customer satisfaction seems to

be the foremost agenda on the minds of petroleum companies these

days. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) seems to offer the

much needed strategy and solution to keep customers happy, smiling

and connected with the organization across their lifetime. CRM has

multiple facets and implications for the petroleum companies who

always seem to be eager to go that extra mile in order to be able to

retain their customer base, prevent cannibalization from competitors

and for keeping their loyal customers coming back to them for more.

The authors have studied two cases of competing petroleum

companies in India and the effect of implementation of CRM strategy

and practices. It was observed that customer satisfaction increased

with the successful implementation of CRM practices across the

organization.

Today in the highly competitive market, increasing customer demands

retail outlets realize the importance of customer relationship

management. The lack of understanding on Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) is always a concern among the service providers

especially retail outlets, retailers have their own way of managing their

relationships with the customers.

3
Customer Relation Marketing in the Petroleum industries in India has

passed through many stages and made various strides to enhance its

operations so that members and the general public are benefiting from

in a broad perspective. Although the government has been involved in

streamlining the Customer Relation Marketing in the petroleum

industry, it is marred by inefficiencies. Based on this concern, the

study meant to establish the factors affecting effective distribution of

petroleum products in India with reference to Indian Oil Corporation.

Two key objectives motivate the GoI’s policy in India’s downstream

petroleum sector:

(a) Ensuring India’s growing refined product demand is met at

affordable prices over time; and (b) establishing India as a major

global refined product exporter. Aside from its fiscal implications,

India’s current petroleum product pricing regime has implications for

the achievement of these goals, and for the emergence of timely

refining investments that are crucial to their achievement.

The study used both primary and secondary data as its source and

semi structured questionnaires as the main instrument of data

collection. The collected data will be edited for analysis. In depth

open-ended questions were used to collect the data. The analysis of

the data gathered went through two main stages. The first stage was

to transcribe the data collected from all the organizations chosen and

produce detailed write-ups for each case. In every case the write-ups

4
were similarly structured to help the researcher in the second stage,

the cross-case analysis. The cross-case analysis was based on the

researcher’s proposed conceptual CRM model.

Our approach was basically descriptive in nature. Available time-

series data on relevant variables were critically examined to ascertain

the economic implications of the various petroleum policies. Our

findings reveal three major economic implications: first is observed

rapid expansion of the number of economic actors in the Indian

petroleum industry; secondly, we observed rapid development of the

transport system; and, thirdly, there were improvements in the gross

domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment, and employment

levels.

Analysis is conducted to examine the impacts of CRM on innovation

process. The statistical results indicate that not all CRM activities

make contributions to each stage within innovation process. It is

found that 1) information sharing effectively enhances both innovation

throughput and innovation output. 2) Customer involvement and joint

problem-solving exert positive influence on innovation throughput

stage, while long-term partnership has significant effects on

innovation output. 3) CRM activities have no impact on innovation

initiation and input. 4) Technology-based CRM is the least effective

mechanism during the innovation process.

5
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 06

LIST OF FIGURE 10

LIST OF TALBE 11

CHAPTER – 1: INTRODUCTION 12

1.1 : CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: BEING A

NEW MARKETING STANDARD 12

1.2 : CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND

MARKETING 20

1.3 : MEANING OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT AND ITS CAPABILITIES 27

1.4 : CRM : A CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND 32

1.5 : THE REASON OF CRM 39

1.6 : THE FUNCTIONALITY OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT 43

CHAPTER – 2: INDIAN OIL CORPORATION: AN OVERVIEW 53

2.1 : INTRODUCTION 53

6
2.2 : SUSTAINABILITY 55

2.3 : CORPORATE GOVERNANCE 60

2.4 : ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE 66

2.5 : ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE 70

2.6 : SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 75

CHAPTER – 3: INTRODUCTION TO PETROLEUM MARKET 78

3.1 : ENERGY SECTOR: AN OVERVIEW 78

3.2 : PETROLEUM INDUSTRY: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 86

3.3 : INDUSTRY STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENTS 115

3.4 : DEREGULATION IN THE PETROLEUM SECTOR IN INDIA 119

CHAPTER – 4: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT:

A CASE STUDY OF PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 126

4.1 : CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT FOR

ENERGY INDUSTRY 126

4.2 : PSU PETROLEUM MARKET: THE CRM PURSUITS 141

4.3 : CRM PURSUITS IN PRIVATE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 149

4.4 : PETROLEUM RETAILING INDUSTRY: NEW CUSTOMER

RELATIONSHIP MANAGENT PURSUITS 153

7
CHAPTER – 5: LITRATURE REVIEW 164

5.1 : STRATEGIES OF CRM 164

5.2 : CONCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES OF RELATIONSHIP

MARKETING 170

5.3 : CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT - INCREASING

EFFICIENCY OF CRM WITH KM 174

5.4 : CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND

LOYALTY 180

5.5 : IT AND CRM 183

5.6 : SATISFACTION AND PROFITABILITY 186

CHAPTER – 6: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 190

6.1 : RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 193

6.2 : SUGGESTED RESEARCH MODEL 195

6.3 : RESEARCH DESIGN 196

6.4 : DATA COLLECTION 199

6.5 : DATA SAMPLING 202

6.6 : HYPOTHESIS 204

6.7 : THE QUESTIONNAIRE 206

8
CHAPTER – 7: RESEARCH ANALYSIS 209

7.1 : INTRODUCTION 209

7.2 : BACKGROUND OF THE SAMPLE 214

7.3 : MULTIVARIATE CORRELATION AND REGRESSION

ANALYSIS ON THE VARIABLES 216

7.4 : ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESES TESTING 227

CHAPTER – 8: CONCLUSIONS 234

REFERENCES 251

QUESTIONNAIRE 265

SERVICE STATION CHARACTERISTICS VARIABLES 269

9
 LIST OF FIGURES

Page
No. Description
No.

Figure 2.1 Total Generation of Renewable Energy. 58

Figure 2.2 Sustainability policy. 59

Figure 2.3 Board of Directors – IOCL. 61

Estimated savings of Standard Refinery Fuel in

Figure 2.4 73
Tones (SRFTs).

Figure 3.1 Total energy consumption in India, 2012. 86

Figure 3.2 India petroleum and other liquids production and 89

consumption, 2000-15.

Fig ure 3.3 Movements in International Price of Crude Oil. 123

Figure 4.1 Factors Impacting the Change in Petro- 141

Retailing

Figure 4.2 CRM Model in PSU’s 149

Competitive landscape for Oil and Gas sector

Figure 4.3 150
in India (top players)

Figure 5.1 Customer Relationship Management 167

Customer Knowledge Management process

Figure 5.2 179
model

10
 LIST OF TABLES

Page
No. Description
No.

Performance (Last Year) and Target (Next

Table 2.1 57
Year).

Product-wise Consumption of Petroleum

Table-3.1 95
Products 000’ tones @ growth.

Reserves and Production of Crude Oil and

Table 3.2 118
Natural Gas.

Table 4.1 Force and impact summary. 134

Comparison of customer management

Table 4.2 137
systems.

Analysis Showing the Background of the

Table 7.1 216
Sample

Summary of variables in Performance of

Table 7.2 225
Service Station

Table 7.3 Summary of Measures and Hypotheses 230

Table 7.4 Results of Hypotheses 233

Mean Scores of the Three Companies of CRM

Table 8.1 240
factors

11
 CHAPTER – 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT : BEING A NEW

MARKETING STANDARD

Customers in the current period are a great deal more engaged today

and selling to them obliges a far more key methodology which CRM

would like to satisfy. Organizations are not just endeavoring to

decipher the needs of the customers focused around their purchasing

conduct, yet are additionally predicting their future needs.crm

empowers firms to alter offerings for customers and when offerings are

altered, the apparent quality gets upgraded. The apparent worth is

compared with saw quality by customers, prompting upgrade of

customer satisfaction. This stresses the need for incorporation along

the quality chain and adjusting and incorporating hierarchical

methodologies back through the supply chain to empower better

esteem conveyance to the end customer.crm might be seen as an

application of coordinated marketing and relationship marketing,

reacting to an singular customer on the premise of what the customer

says and what else is thought about that customer (Peppers, Rogers

and Dorf, 1999)1. It is a management approach that empowers

organizations to distinguish, pull in, and build maintenance of

profitable customers by overseeing relationships with them and

1 Peppers, Rogers and Dorf, (1999), “Is Your Company Ready for One-to-One Marketing”Harvard
Business Review, 77, p.p 151–160.
12
further distinguishing deliberately critical customers (Buttle, F.,

2001)2."CRM is an IT empowered business system, the conclusions of

which upgrade gainfulness, revenue and customer satisfaction by

arranging around customer segments fostering customer-fulfilling

conduct and actualizing a customer-driven procedure" (Gartner group,

2008)3. Arrangement of motivating forces and measurements,

organization of information management systems, tracking customer

abandonment and maintenance levels and customer administration

satisfaction levels are different commitments of CRM Technology.

Customer relationship management (CRM) has pulled in the stretched

consideration of practitioners and researchers. More companies are

receiving customer-driven methodologies, projects, tools, and

technology for effective and compelling customer relationship

management. They are understanding the requirement for top to

bottom and coordinated customer learning in place to construct close

agreeable and cooperating relationships with their customers.

The rise of new channels and advances is fundamentally modifying

how companies interface with their customers, a development

realizing a more prominent level of coordination between marketing,

sales, and customer administration works in organizations. For

practitioners, CRM speaks to an venture methodology to creating full-

2 Buttle, F., (2001), “The CRM Value Chain,” Marketing Business, p.p 52–55 Retrieved January 25, 2008.
3 Gartner group., (2008), “Worldwide CRM Software Market to Grow 14% in 2008(online), Available at
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=653307.
13
information about customer conduct and inclination and to creating

projects and methodologies that empower customers to persistently

improve their business relationship with the organization.

CRM could be seen in four main ways. Firstly, it is a contemporary

reaction to the developing atmosphere of uncommon customer beat,

disappearing brand loyalty and lower gainfulness (Cockburn, 2000)4.

Furthermore, CRM is fundamental to the undertaking of making an

association customer-driven. Thirdly, CRM is the surest symbol

grasping data technology in business. Fourth lastly, CRM is the most

certain approach to expansion quality to the customers and benefit to

the polishing organizations (Reichheld, 1996)5.

In a bigger number of routes than one, CRM speaks to a consistent

end of the rationality that the business ought to be customer situated

(Gamble, P., Merlin, S. and Neil W. 2000)6. It navigated a progressive

strains of musings to reach what is presently seen as another

business paradigm. For example, the early marketing paradigms

common until the sixties, appointed advertisers to fulfill customer

needs that were basically nature made. Later in the seventies, the

marketing capacities served the Customers needs that were only

'particular answers for the needs and were the conclusion of the

4Cockburn, P. 2000, 'CRM for Profit', Telecommunications, Dedham, December, vol. 34

no. 12, pp. 89-92.
5Reichheld, F., 1996. The Loyalty Effect: the Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value.

Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

6Gamble, P., Merlin, S. and Neil W. 2000, Up Close and Personal: Customer Relationship
Marketing at Work, Kogan page, London.

14
marketing activities. Marketing contemplations of the eighties gave

themselves to meet the higher, more way of life situated requests and

desires of customers. These were the consequence of the then social

and economic nature's domain.

The idea of Customer Relationship Management required some

investment flourishing in India because of the immature nature of the

Indian markets. India has generally been a merchant's business

sector, with advertisers essentially been concerned with delivering

enough, as there were sufficient purchasers. So mass creation and a

decent conveyance system were sufficient in the 80's and 90's. On the

other hand, today there is rivalry in every segment furthermore

customers have a decision. The current situation is portrayed by an

expanded rivalry among firms, a hefty portion of them working

universally, as additionally by expanded media mess prompting an

exceptionally progressive however expanding inadequacy of mass

marketing. Companies have begun feeling the crunch. As of late, truly

a couple of Indian companies have taken to Customer Relationship

Management in some structure or an alternate, in spite of the fact

that a considerable lot of these are in the services sector. The lodging

business has generally been taking after Customer Relationship

Management. Banking services and the retailing sector are different

industries heading in the practice.

15
Customer Relationship Marketing has numerous ramifications for

business arranging, employee training, advertising, promotion, public

relations, direct marketing, package design, et cetera. Customer

Relationship Marketing obliges us to refocus our consideration on the

economic estimation of brands. CRM requests that we consider the

cost of brand abuse versus the profits of brand building. The

Customer Relationship Marketer's objective is to win and keep brand

dependable customers. Building continuing, profitable, developing

brands is about making, supporting, protecting and fortifying devoted

brand relationships. Success, securing, and trial are critical for

development. In any case, when studies demonstrate that it costs four

to six times to the extent that get another customer as it does to keep

a customer unwavering, we must concentrate on the new marketing

basic. We must form brand loyalty.

The objective is not simply to draw in customers. It is to pull in and

hold customer loyalty. The faithful customer is the most profitable

customer, yet the center is still frequently just on drawing in new

customers. Concentrating on customer procurement without giving

careful consideration to reinforcing customer loyalty is restricted to

develop sales, yet it is not the best approach to develop sales

beneficially. The Brand Loyalty Marketer realizes that the true

16
objective must be to build sales volume and brand esteem in the

meantime (Anton, John 1999)7.

The term customer relationship management or CRM for brevity is

presently among the more popular buzzwords of the Nineties. As a

result, the concept means different things to different people. However

all agree on one feature of CRM: it reflects “Ongoing relationships

between businesses and their customers’ in business (Sheth and

Parvatiyar. 2000)8. ( Agrawal, 2002)9 conceptualized CRM as the

technological face of the business processes aimed to establish

enduring and mutually beneficial relationships to drive customer

retention, value and profitability up.

Indeed, the building of strong customer relationships has been

suggested as a means for gaining competitive advantage in marketing.

In its core, CRM argues that customers vary in terms of profitability

and any two customers representing same demographic segment may

incur different cost and generate different revenue over time.

Moreover, it is recognized that not all customers generate revenue

streams and therefore efforts should be to upgrade low, medium profit

customers into profitable customers. CRM recognizes this fact of

marketing life and recommends that the firm should actively

encourage relationships with profitable customers only and attempt to

7Anton, John 1999, Customer Relationship Management, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, NJ.
8Sheth, .Iagdish N. and Atul Parvatiyar (2000), Handbook of Relationship Marketing, Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage Publications.
9Agrawal, M.L (2002), ‘Customer relationship management (CRM) and corporate renaissance, 2002

17
terminate or outsource relationships with unprofitable customers

(Reichheld, 1996)10.

The CRM touches various areas of marketing and vital choices.

Joining of a few different paradigms of marketing particularly around

the subject of cooperation and collaboration in the middle of

marketers and customers has just added to its unmistakable quality

in the corporate world. As indicated by Parvatiyar and Sheth (2000),

CRM alludes to 'an adroitly expansive sensation of business action

where cooperation and collaboration with customers turn into the

overwhelming standard of marketing practice and research'.

As building profitable customer relationships becomes basic

motivation behind every venture, it obliges an all encompassing

methodology to make it fruitful. CRM is quick rising an overwhelming

viewpoint of marketing. It is contended as though CRM is the vital

solution to modern business issues and can give readymade answers.

Be that as it may, at its center, CRM includes rethinking the value

offer to the customers, outlining and coordinating business processes

around them, and implementing and monitoring projects for the total

such that it makes a reasonable customer advantage (Agrawal, 2002).

In the event that executed effectively CRM offers tremendous profits to

the association in terms of enhanced sales, market share profitability,

10Reichheld,F.F. and Teal, T. (1996), The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force behind Growth, Profits, and
Lasting Value, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

18
customer fulfillment and decreased customer turnover, service cost

and time. Different terminologies, for example, relationship marketing,

relationship management, customer management, CRM and soon

have been utilized to portray the methodology or exercises went for

building long term profitable relationships with customers. Levitt

(1983) clarified that 'the relationship really heightens consequent to

the deal and turns into the basic element in the purchaser's decision

of the vender next time around' and the 'deal only consummates the

courtship'. Then again, it should be known thusly how decently

characterized the relationship has been, which thus relies on upon the

cost of sales and the profitability of the goods sold.

The further rise of mutual beneficial relationship through relational

exchange has been at the core of all CRM studies. Gronroos (1994)11

defined relationship marketing as ‘a set of activities directed towards

establishing, developing and enhancing customer relationships for

mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises’. (Christopher et. al.

2002)12 also echoed the same and defining that mutual exchange and

fulfillment of promises trust and commitment, communication

effectiveness and personalization are the integral elements in

managing relationships (jain and jain, 2001)13. (Gruen et al,

11Groonroos, Christian 1994, "From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift
in Marketing' , Marketing Decision, 32(2),4-20.
12Christopher, M., Payne, A., & Ballantyne, D. (2002). Relationship marketing: Creating stakeholder

value. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.

13Jain. R. & Jain S. 2001. Managing Relationships for Effective Supply Chain Management in P.

Radhakrishnan, S.Palaniswami, P. V. Mohanram and J .Kanchana (Eds), Logistics and Supply Chain
Management, New Delhi: Allied.
19
2000)14reported that interpersonal relationships between buyers and

suppliers serve as switching barriers and prevent customer defection.

1.2 :CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING

Advertisers began the new thousand years in one of two groups: the

individuals who practice Customer Relationship Marketing, and the

individuals who don't. The individuals who do are redesigning their

marketing projects to make and fortify brand loyalty. They put to the

extent that on holding customers as they do on pulling in customers.

These same advertisers are likewise deserting the idea that

advertising's occupation closes with the deal, that its objective is to

impact a few "uninvolved" at some money register. They perceive that

the deal is the start of a chance to make a persisting, profitable brand

relationship with the customer.

The individuals who don't practice Customer Relationship Marketing

(CRM) might not need to—yet. Anyhow they will. They will in the event

that they are to get by in this thousand years, on the off chance that

they are to manage profitable development notwithstanding

unavoidable losses from the marketing waves that went before CRM.

14Gruen, Thomas W., John O. Summers, and Frank Acito (2000), “Relationship Marketing Activities,
Commitment, and Membership Behaviors in Professional Associations,” Journal of Marketing, 64 (3),
34–49.
20
There are three such waves, which, all in all, have driven marketing

since World War II.

 Mass marketing cultivated development through economies of

scale and efficiencies of achieve, builds as old as the Industrial

Revolution kept significant by the post-war blast in populace and

continuous gains in optional pay. Mass items and services were

mass showcased and mass disseminated to mass markets through

mass advertising in mass media.

 Targeted marketing assumed control when mass advertisers

understood that all customers are not made equivalent. Centered

marketing headed to concentrated items and particular

appropriation as well as to concentrated media, crowds and

messages.

 Global marketing, which numerous advertisers utilization right up

'til today, is basically a mixture that takes the focused on

methodology crosswise over geology rather than inside topography.

To accomplish the economies of scale guaranteed by mass

marketing, advertisers hunt down basic target markets worldwide.

At the point when advertisers found, for instance, that adolescents

in Melbourne, Munich, and Manhattan shared an incredible

arrangement in like manner, this spoke to extraordinary open

21
 doors for such global brands as Levi's, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s,

and Doc Martens.

The initial three marketing waves shared one thing in as a relatable

point. They concentrated on boosting sales. The objectives were to

expand sales in mass markets, focused on businesses or global

markets. Advertisers are currently finding that it is lamentably

conceivable to build sales without expanding benefits. In this way,

now advertisers take a gander at quality of share, not simply amount

of share. Their goal is continuing profitable development. The new

marketing objective is to build sales and to expand benefits all the

while. Advertisers are starting to admire that the premise for

persisting profitable development is the creation and support of

building customer relationships.15

In the marketing writing the terms customer relationship management

and relationship marketing are utilized reciprocally and reflect a

variety of subjects and viewpoints (Nevin, 1995)16. While subjects offer

15 Slater, Stanley F. and John C. Narver, “Superior Customer Value and Business Performance: The
Strong Evidence for a Market-Driven Culture,” Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA.
16Nevin John R. (1995), .'Relationship Marketing and Distribution Channels: Exploring Fundamental

Issues," journal of the Academy Marketing Sciences, (Fall), pp. 327-334.

22
a limited functional marketing viewpoint, then again it offers a point of

view that is wide and to some degree paradigmatic in methodology and

introduction. One point of view of customer relationship management

is database marketing underscoring on the special parts of marketing

interfaced to database endeavors, yet, an alternate, however

important, perspective is to consider CRM as customer retention in

which a variety of in the wake of marketing strategies is utilized for

customer holding or staying in touch after the deal is made (Vavra,

1992)17. On the other hand, in the continuum, one of the popular

methodologies with late application of data innovation is to

concentrate on individual or balanced relationship with customers

that incorporate information base learning with the long-term

customer retention and development Strategies. Relationship

marketing is "an incorporated exertion to distinguish, keep up, and

develop a network with individual buyers and to persistently fortify

the network for the mutual profit of both sides, through intuitive,

individualized and value-added contacts over a long time of time"

(Shani and Chalasani, 1992)18. Applies the individual record idea in

modern markets to recommend CRM to signify, "Marketing focused to

solid, enduring relationships with individual records. In different

business settings, have proposed comparative perspectives of

customer relationship management.

17Vavra, Terry G. (1992), Aftermarketing: How to Keep Customers for Life through Relationship
Marketing, Home.wood, IL: Business One-Irwin.
18Shani, D. and Chalasani, S. (1992), ‘‘Exploiting niches using relationship marketing’’, The Journal of

Consumer Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 33-42.

23
(McKenna, 1991)19affirms a more key view by putting the customer

first and moving the part of marketing from controlling the customer

(telling and offering) to certified customer inclusion (conveying and

imparting the information). (Berry, 1995)20, in to some degree more

extensive terms, additionally has a key perspective about CRM. He

focuses on that pulling in new customers ought to be seen just as an

intermediate venture in the marketing procedure. Creating closer

relationship with these customers and transforming them into reliable

ones are just as important parts of marketing. Therefore, he proposed

relationship marketing as "drawing in, keeping up, and -in multi-

service associations -improving customer relationships".

(Berry, 1983)21formally presented the term customer relationship

management to the writing yet a few thoughts of relationship

marketing had officially developed much prior. (McGarry,

1953)22incorporated six activities in the formal rundown of marketing

functions contractual function; publicity function, promoting function,

physical appropriation function, valuing function and termination

function are symptomatic of the CRM. Arndt gave the following driving

force to CRM who noted the propensity of organizations occupied with

business-to-business marketing in creating long-Lasting relationships

with their key customers and their key suppliers instead of

19McKenna, Regis (1991), Relationship Marketing: Successful Strategies for the Age of the Customers.
Addison- Wesley Publishing Company.
20Berry, L. (1995), "Relationships marketing of services, growing interest, emerging perspectives", Journal

of Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 236-45.

21Berry, L.L. 1983, Relationship Marketing, in Berry, L.L. Shostack. GL and Upha, GD (Eds), Emerging

Perspectives in Service Marketing, American Marketing Association, Chicago, II, pp.- 25-8.
22McGarry, G. 1953, 'Some Viewpoints in Marketing', Journal of Marketing, 17(3), pp-36-43.

24
concentrating on discrete trade and termed this marvel as "tamed

markets". The last push to CRM was given by none other than the

modern defenders of profitable customer retention hypothesis who

completed a study on customer retention and corporate profitability

and unmistakably expressed that the part of customers is crucial for

corporate execution and that when relationships with customers

persevere, profits climb. Furthermore, (Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995)

demonstrated that the cost of holding current clients is oftentimes

much lower than cost of obtaining new ones. In the same way,

(Reichheld, 1993) inferred that financial profits of high loyalty are

important, and in numerous industries they clarify the distinctions

among organizations.

Lately, customer relationship management is constantly extended to

incorporate a coordinated point of view on marketing, sales, customer

service, channel management, logistics and innovation for taking part

in customer fulfillment. Specialists are calling it customer relationship

management (CRM) and are intrigued by all parts of collaborations

with customers to keep up a long-term profitable relationship with

them. They are extremely enthused about researching the projects,

methodologies, processes and innovations that would be pertinent for

compelling customer relationship management in the new millennium.

Customer Relationship Management is about pulling in, keeping up

and improving customer relationships. It concentrates on the "lifetime

25
worth" of the customer rather than a single transaction. Customer

Relationship Management is not an alternate sort of advertising

model; it is an alternate sort of business model. It is about

empowering the brand to utilize hard data to comprehend and aide

the relationship that exists between the brand and its customers-

both present and future. "A business relationship obliges ID of great

customers, who need an equal relationship to make new esteem for

common long haul profit. Customer Relationship Management is an

on-going procedure of recognizing what's more making new esteem

with individual customers, and after that sharing the profits over a

lifetime of affiliation. It includes understanding, centering and

management of on-going coordinated effort in the middle of suppliers

and chose customers for shared quality creation also sharing through

relationship and hierarchical arrangement."

Not at all like most advertising, CRM does not end with getting the

potential customer prepared to purchase. It doesn't even end with the

real deal. It goes past that to post-buy experience, customer

maintenance, cross selling and that's only the tip of the iceberg. When

a deal is made, companies ought not kick back and lose the chance of

changing over a customer into a "customer forever". E.g. an

organization agent may call a customer a prior week the warranty

period is over and offer to redress any issues that may have sprung

up. This is an open door not just to remind the customer that you

26
mind additionally to make referrals, repurchase or offer a related

item/ administration.

Customer Relationship Management moves past customer satisfaction

to "customer delight". On the off chance that a fly out office had the

capacity offer a family an occasion to the correct spot, at the ideal

time at the right cost. In the event that they could organize an

additional couch for the 5-year old without being asked and even get a

pizza conveyed at the doorstep when the gang returns from the

occasion, excessively tired to cook. Simultaneously it would guarantee

not just a deep rooted customer additionally a reliable

representative.23

It ought to, notwithstanding, be remembered that CRM does not mean

having a call focus just; it doesn't mean having simply a database of

consumers for sending direct mail or making simply a social

relationship with the shopper or so far as that is concerned having an

everlasting value rebate methodology. For all these to bode well,

suitable systems should likewise be set up.

1.3: MEANING OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

AND ITS CAPABILITIES

Customer Relationship Marketing is the fourth noteworthy post-war

wave. While advertisers have since a long time ago saw brands as
23Desatnick, Robert L. and Denis H. Detzel, Managing to Keep the Customer, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco,
p. 8.
27
stakes, the true stake is brand loyalty. A brand is not an advantage.

Brand loyalty is the benefit. Without the loyalty of its customers, a

brand is just a trademark, an ownable, identifiable symbol with little

esteem. With the loyalty of its customers, a brand is more than a

trademark. A trademark recognizes an item, an administration, a

corporation. A brand distinguishes a guarantee. A solid brand is a

dependable, important, unique guarantee. It is more than a

trademark. It is a trustmark of colossal quality. Making and

expanding brand loyalty brings about a comparing increment in the

estimation of the trustmark. 24

The new attention on building brand loyalty is empowered by the way

that it costs four-to-six times more to change over a customer than it

does to hold one. One study, led by Jagdish N. Sheth, particularly

inferred that it "costs five times to the extent that supplant an average

customer as it does to take activities that would have kept the

customer in the first place." After broad research, the Technical

Assistance Research Programs Institute (TARP) of the White House

Office of Consumer Affairs watched that it costs essentially more to

draw in a customer than it does to hold one. Slater and Narver

watched that "Customer loyalty is amazingly important on the

grounds that keeping a customer costs just around one-fifth to the

extent that pulling in another one."

24Band, W.A., Creating Value for Customers, John Wiley & Son, Toronto, pp. 11-12.

28
As Frederick F. Reichheld and W. Earl Sasser Jr. finish up in their

historic point study, "Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services," the

expense of perpetually pursuing new customers as opposed to dealing

with the loyalty of existing ones claims an overlooked however

overpowering toll. "Customer surrenders have a shockingly effective

effect on how the money adds up," the writers compose. Loyalty can

have more to do with an organization's benefits than "scale, piece of

the pie, unit costs, and numerous different elements typically

connected with point of interest. As a customer's relationship with the

organization stretches, benefits climb. Also not only a bit. Companies

can support benefits by very nearly 100 percent by holding only 5

percent a greater amount of their customers".

The core theme of all CRM and relationship marketing perspectives is

its focus on cooperative and collaborative relationship between the

firm and its customers. have characterized such cooperative

relationships as being interdependent and long-term orientated rather

than being concerned with short-term discrete transactions. The long-

term orientation is often emphasized because such relationships will

be anchored on mutual gains and co-operation (Ganesan, 1994)25.

Another important facet of CRM is “customer selectivity”. As several

research studies have shown not all customers are equally profitable

25Ganeshan, Shankar 1994, 'Determination of Long- Term Orientation in Buyer-Seller Relationships',

Journal of Marketing, 58 (April), pp-1-19.
29
for an individual company (Storbacka, 2000)26. The company therefore

must be selective in tailors its program and marketing efforts by

segmenting and selecting appropriate customers for individual

marketing programs. CRM therefore is a comprehensive strategy and

process of acquiring, retaining and partnering with selective

customers to create superior value of the company and the Customer.

The purpose of CRM is to improve marketing productivity. Marketing

productivity is achieved by increasing marketing efficiency and by

enhancing marketing effectiveness (Sheth and Sisodia, 1995). In CRM,

marketing efficiency is achieved because cooperative and collaborative

processes help in reducing transaction costs and overall development

costs for the company, Two important processes of CRM include

proactive customer business development and building partnering

relationship with most important customers, These lead to superior

mutual value creation. Various perspective of Defining CRM has been

given in the literature.

As part of the Information Mechanism, CRM refers to a business

strategy to select and manage customers to optimize long-term value.

CRM requires a customer-centric business philosophy and culture to

support effective marketing, sales, and service processes. CRM

applications can enable effective Customer Relationship Management,

provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy, and

26Storbacka, Kaj (2000), "Customer Profitability: Analysis and Design Issues," in Handbook of
Relationship Marketing, Jagdish N. Sheth and Atul Parvatiyar, Eds., Thousand Oaks, GA: Sage
Publications, pp. 565-586.
30
culture. When organizations implements customer-centric business

strategies; it involves redesigning of functional activities; which

demands re-engineering of work processes; which is supported, not

driven, by CRM technology. This reinforces the understanding that

CRM is a "chain reaction" triggered by new strategic initiatives rather

than something that can initiate at the work process, or at technology

level. In terms of Technology, CRM refers to methodologies, software,

and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage

customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an

enterprise might build a database about its customers that described

relationships in sufficient detail. Therefore, management, salespeople,

people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could

access information, match customer needs with product plans and

offerings, remind customers of service requirements, and know what

other products a customer had purchased. It is a "big picture"

approach that integrates the sales, order fulfillment, and customer

service, and co-ordinates and unifies all points of interaction with the

customer, throughout the Customer Life Cycle (CLC). The

technological solutions are built on a total knowledge of the customer,

and require technologies capable of supporting all forms of customer

contact. Arguably, CRM is a business strategy to get, grow, and retain

the right customers, leading to long-term profitability and to optimize

long-term value. CRM is essential to create a sustainable competitive

advantage based on relationships, not just products. Therefore, CRM

31
requires a customer-centric business philosophy and culture to

support effective marketing, sales, and service processes.

1.4 :CRM : A CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND

Albeit marketing practices could be followed back the extent that 7000

B.c. (Carratu 1987)27, marketing thought as a different control was a

result of economics around the start of this century. As the control

picked up force, and created through the initial seventy five percent of

the twentieth century, the essential center was on transactions and

trades. Then again, the development of marketing as a field of study

and practice is experiencing a reconceptualization in its introduction

from transactions to relationships (Kotler 1990)28. The accentuation

on relationships instead of transaction based trades is prone to

reclassify the domain of marketing (Sheth, Gardener and Garett

1988). In fact, the development of a relationship marketing school of

thought is impending given the developing enthusiasm of marketing

researchers in the social paradigm.

In this study, we watch, that the paradigm shift from transactions to

relationships is connected with the return of direct marketing both in

business-to-business and business-to- customer markets. As in the

preindustrial time (described by direct marketing practices of

agricultural and antique makers) at the end of the day direct

27Carratu, V. (1987) Commercial Counterfeiting, in Murphy, J. (Ed.), Branding: A Key Marketing Tool. The
Macmillan Press Ltd., London.
28 Kotler, P. (1990), Presentation at the Trustees Meeting of the Marketing Science Institute in November
1990, Boston.
32
marketing, yet in a distinctive structure, is getting to be well known,

and thus so is the relationship introduction of advertisers. At the

point when makers and consumers directly manage one another,

there is a more noteworthy potential for enthusiastic holding that

transcends economic trade. They can comprehend and admire each

others' needs and requirements better, are more slanted to coordinate

with each other, and therefore, get to be more relationship situated.

This is in differentiation to the trade introduction of the brokers

(sellers and purchasers). To the mediators, particularly the

wholesalers, the economics of transactions are more vital, furthermore

hence, they are less sincerely joined to items. To be sure, numerous

brokers do not physically see, feel, touch items however just go about

as executors and take title to the products for financing and danger

sharing.

Similarly as with every new shift in the center of marketing, there are

backers and commentators of the relationship center in marketing.

Then again, in the same path as Kotler (1972, p. 46)29 saw about

different shifts in marketing, we accept that the rise of a relationship

center will give an "invigorated and stretched self idea" to marketing.

Our hopefulness comes from no less than four perceptions: (i)

relationship marketing has gotten the extravagant of researchers in

numerous parts of the world, including North America, Europe,

Australia and Asia, as is obvious from the investment in a portion of

29 Kotler, P. (1972), A Generic Concept of Marketing, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36 April, pp. 46-54.
33
the late meetings hung on this subject (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1994);

(ii) its degree is wide enough to cover the whole range of marketing's

sub disciplines, including channels, business-to-business marketing,

services marketing, marketing examination, customer conduct,

marketing communication, marketing system, worldwide marketing

and direct marketing; (iii) like different sciences, marketing is a

developing order, and has created an arrangement of expansion,

correction and overhauling its principal learning (Bass 1993); and (iv)

researchers who at one time were heading advocates of the trade

paradigm, for example, Bagozzi (1974)30 and Kotler (1972), are

presently charmed by the social parts of marketing (Bagozzi 1994;

Kotler 1994)31,32.

The Emergence of CRM Practice as observed by (Sheth and Parvatiyar,

1995b)33, developing customer relationships has historical

antecedents going back into the pre-industrial era, Much of it was due

to direct interaction between producers of agricultural products and

their consumers, Similarly artisans often developed customized

products for each customer, Such direct interaction led to relational

bonding between the producer and the consumer, It was only after

industrial era's mass production society and the advent of middlemen

30Bagozzi, R. P. (1974) Marketing as an Organized Behavioral System of Exchanges, Journal of Marketing,

Vol. 38, October, pp. 77-81.
31Bagozzi, R. P. (1994) Interactions In Small Groups: The Social Relations Model, in Sheth, J.N. and

Parvatiyar, A. (Eds); Relationship Marketing: Theory, Methods and Applications, Center for Relationship
Marketing, Emory University, Atlanta.
32Kotler, P. (1994), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control. Prentice-

Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

33Sheth, Jagdish N. and Atul Parvatiyar (1995b), "The Evolution of Relationship Marketing," International

Business Review, 4 (4), pp. 397-418.

34
that there were less frequent interactions between producers and

consumers leading to transactions oriented marketing, The production

and consumption functions got separated leading to marketing

functions being performed by the middlemen. And middlemen are in

general oriented towards economic aspects of buying since the largest

cost is often the cost of goods sold.

In recent years however, a few components have helped the fast

advancement and development of CRM. These incorporate the

developing de-intermediation handle in numerous industries because

of the appearance of complex machine and telecom innovations that

allow makers to specifically interface with end-customers. In

numerous industries, for example, carriers, banks, protection,

machine program programming, or family apparatuses and even

consumables, the de-intermediation procedure is quick changing the

way of marketing and therefore making relationship marketing more

popular. Databases and immediate marketing apparatuses provide for

them the intends to individualize their marketing deliberations.

Therefore, makers needn't bother with those functions in the past

performed by the brokers. Indeed shoppers are eager to attempt a

portion of the obligations of immediate requesting, individual

marketing, and item utilize related services with little help structure

the makers, The late achievement of on-line saving money, immediate

offering of books, vehicles, protection, monetary markets, and so on.,

35
on the Internet all authenticate the developing shopper enthusiasm

toward keeping up immediate relationship with marketers.

The de-intermediation process and resulting pervasiveness of CRM is

additionally because of the development of the service economy. Since

services are regularly delivered and conveyed at the same foundation,

it minimizes the part of the brokers. A more noteworthy enthusiastic

bond between the service supplier and the service client additionally

creates the requirement for keeping up and upgrading the

relationship. It is in this way not hard to see that CRM is important

for researchers and professionals of services marketing (Bitner,

1995)34.

An alternate energy driving the reception of CRM has been the change

in quality and rise of numerous quality devices, for example, TQM,

JIT, MRP, ISO, six sigma and so forth. At the point when organizations

grasped Total Quality Management (TQM) rationality to enhance

quality and diminish costs, it got to be important to include suppliers

and customers in implementing the project at all levels of the value

chain. This required close living up to expectations relationships with

customers, suppliers, and different parts of the marketing framework.

Along these lines, a few organizations, for example, Maruti, IBM, HP,

General Motors, Honda and so forth., shaped cooperating

relationships with suppliers and customers to practice TQM. Different

34Bitner,M.J. (1995), "Building service relationships: its all about promises", Journal of Academy of
Marketing Science., Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 246-51.
36
projects, for example, in the nick of time (JIT) supply and Material-

asset arranging (MRP) likewise made the utilization of related

relationships in the middle of suppliers and customers (Frazier,

Spekman, and O'Neal, 1988)35.

In the current era of hyper-competition, marketers are forced to be

more concerned with customer retention and loyalty. As several

studies have indicated, retaining customers is less expensive and

perhaps a more sustainable competitive advantage than acquiring new

ones. Marketers are realizing that it costs less to retain customers

than to compete for new ones. On the supply side it pays more to

develop closer relationships with a few suppliers than to develop more

vendors. In addition, several marketers are also concerned with

keeping customers for life, rather than making a one-time sale. There

is greater opportunity for cross selling and up selling to a customer

who is loyal and committed to the firm and its offerings (Naidu, et. al.,

1999)36 .

Also, customer expectations have rapidly changed over the last two

decades. Fueled by new technology and growing availability of

advanced product features and services, customer expectations are

changing almost on a daily basis. Consumers are less willing to make

compromises or trade-off in product and service quality. In the world

35Frazier,
Gary L., Robert E. Spekman, and Charles O'Neal (1988), "Just-in-Time Exchange Systems and
Industrial Marketing," journal/ of Marketing. 52 (October), pp. 52-67.
36Naidu G.M., Atul Parvatiyar, Jagdish N. Sheth and Lori Westgate (1999), "Does Relationship Marketing

Pay? An Empirical Investigation of Relationship Marketing Practices in Hospitals," 46 (3), pp. 207-218.
37
of ever changing customer expectations, cooperative and collaborative

relationship with customers seem to be the most prudent way to keep

track of their changing expectations and appropriately influencing it

(Sheth and Sisodia, 1995). As companies began to improve on

Customer Relationship Management, instead of simply gathering data

for their own use, they began giving back to their customers not only

in terms of the obvious goal of improved customer service by

processing the gathered information two-way and rewarding the

customers by incentives, gifts and other perks for customer loyalty.

This was the beginning of the now familiar frequent flyer programs,

bonus points on credit cards and a host of other resources that are

based on CRM tracking of customer activity and spending patterns.

CRM was now being used as a way to increase sales passively as well

as through active improvement of customer service. With the

increased fluidity of these programs came a less rigid relationship

between sales, customer service and marketing. There was a

desperate need for development of new strategies for more cooperative

work between these different divisions through shared information

and understanding, leading to increased customer satisfaction from

order to end product.

As data grew and became more complex, analysis of the problem as to

how reactive customer is to the offering of the company became more

interest to the company. The dynamic nature of the customer to the

offerings in the market place led to the emergence of Real Customer

38
Relationship Management as it’s thought of today. As software

companies began releasing newer, more advanced solutions that were

customizable across industries, it became feasible to really use the

information in a dynamic way. The relationship between the company

and customer was coined and was looked to be marketing tool for all

future transactions. Instead of feeding information into a static

database for future reference, CRM became a way to continuously

update understanding of customer needs and behavior. Branching of

information, sub-folders, and custom tailored features enabled

companies to break down information into smaller subsets so that

they could evaluate not only concrete statistics, but also information

on the motivation and reactions of customers.

1.5: THE REASON OF CRM

In the marketing writing the terms customer relationship management

and relationship marketing are utilized reciprocally. As Nevin (1995)

focuses out, these terms have been utilized to reflect an assortment of

topics and viewpoints. Some of these subjects offer a limited

utilitarian marketing viewpoint while others offer a point of view that

is wide and sort of paradigmatic in methodology and introduction. A

thin point of view of customer relationship management is database

marketing accentuating the promotional parts of marketing interfaced

to database deliberations (Bickert, 1992)37.

37Bickert, Jock (1992), "The Database Revolution," Target Marketing, (May), pp.14-18.
39
An alternate slender, yet important, perspective is to consider CRM

just as looking for customer maintenance by utilizing a mixture of in

the wake of marketing strategies that lead to customer holding or

staying in contact with the customer after a deal is made (Vavra,

1992). A more famous methodology with the late application of data

technology is to concentrate on individual or balanced relationships

with customers that coordinate database learning with a long-term

customer maintenance and development system. Hence, Shani and

Chalasani (1992)38 have characterized relationship marketing as "a

coordinated exertion to distinguish, keep up, and develop a system

with singular consumers and to ceaselessly fortify the system for the

common profit of both sides, through intuitive, individualized and

valueadded contacts over a long time of time" (p. 44). Jackson (1985)39

applies the individual record idea in industrial markets to recommend

CRM to signify, "Marketing focused toward solid, enduring

relationships with individual records" (p. 2). In different business

settings, Doyle and Roth (1992)40, have proposed comparative

perspectives of customer relationship management.

Mckenna (1991)41 has declared a more key view by putting the

customer first and shifting the part of marketing from controlling the

38Shani, D. and Chalasani, S. (1992), ‘‘Exploiting niches using relationship marketing’’, The Journal of
Consumer Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 33-42.
39Jackson, Barbara B. (1985), Winning and Keeping Industrial Customers: The Dynamics of Customer

Relationships, Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company.

40Doyle, Stephen X. and Roth George Thomas (1992), "Selling and Sales Management in Action: The Use

of Insight Coaching to Improve Relationship Selling," journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management,
(Winter), pp. 59-64.
41McKenna, Regis (1991), Relationship Marketing: Successful Strategies for the Age of the Customers.

Addison- Wesley Publishing Company.

40
customer (telling and selling) to authentic association with the

customer (conveying and sharing information). Berry (1995), in sort of

more extensive terms, likewise has a key perspective concerned with

CRM. He has focused on that pulling in new customers ought to be

seen just as an intermediate venture in the marketing procedure and

that creating closer relationship with these customers and

transforming them into reliable ones ought to be similarly imperative

parts of marketing. Along these lines, he suggested that relationship

marketing be seen as "pulling in, keeping up, and – in multi-

administration organizations – upgrading customer relationships" (p.

25).

Berry's thought of customer relationship management takes after that

of different researchers mulling over services marketing, for example,

Gronroos(1990), Gummesson (1987), and Levitt (1983). Albeit every

one of them has upheld the estimation of communications in

marketing and its subsequent effect on customer relationships,

Gronroos and Gummesson take a more extensive viewpoint and

supporter that relationships with customers be the center and

predominant paradigm of marketing. Case in point, Gronroos (1990)

states:

"Marketing is to secure, keep up, and improve relationships with

customers and different accomplices, at a benefit, so that the targets

of the gatherings included are met. This is accomplished by a common

41
trade and satisfaction of guarantees" (p. 138). The ramifications of

Gronroos' definition is that structuring relationships with customers

is the "raison deetre" of the firm and marketing should be given to

building and upgrading such relationships. Thus, Morgan and Hunt

(1994)42 draw upon the qualification made between transactional

trades and social trades by Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987)43 to

recommend that relationship marketing "alludes to all marketing

exercises directed toward making, creating, and keeping up fruitful

relationships."

The center subject of all CRM and relationship marketing points of

view is its concentrate on a helpful and collective relationship between

the firm also its customers, and/or other marketing performers.

Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987) have portrayed such helpful

relationships as being reliant and long haul orientated instead of

being concerned with fleeting discrete transactions. The long haul

introduction is frequently underlined in light of the fact that it is

accepted that marketing performing artists won't take part in artful

conduct on the off chance that they have a long haul introduction and

that such relationships will be secured in common gains and

participation (Ganesan, 1994).

42Morgan , Robert M. and Hunt, Shelby D. 1994, 'The Commitment - Trust Theory of Relationship
Marketing', Journal of Marketing, 58 (3), pp-20-38.
43Dwyer, F. Robert, Paul H. Schurr, and Sejo Oh (1987), “Developing Buyer–Seller Relationships,” Journal

of Marketing, 51 (April), 11–27.

42
An alternate imperative aspect of CRM is "customer selectivity." As a

few exploration studies have demonstrated, not all customers are

similarly profitable for an individual organization (Storbacka, 2000).

The organization consequently should be specific in customizing its

program and marketing endeavors by segmenting and selecting proper

customers for individual marketing projects.

1.6 :THE FUNCTIONALITY OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT

Intermittent evaluation of results in CRM is required to assess if the

projects are gathering desires and in the event that they are

reasonable over the long haul. Execution assessment likewise helps in

making remedial move regarding relationship governance or in

adjusting relationship marketing destinations furthermore program

characteristics. Without fitting execution measurements to assess

CRM deliberations, it would be tricky to settle on target choices with

respect to continuation, change, or end of CRM projects. Creating

execution measurements is dependably a testing movement as most

firms are slanted to utilize existing marketing measures to assess

CRM. Nonetheless, numerous existing marketing measures, for

example, piece of the overall industry and aggregate volume of sales

may not be fitting in the connection of CRM. Actually when more CRM

situated measures are chosen, they can't be connected consistently

43
over all CRM programs, especially when the reason for each one

system is diverse.

For instance, if the motivation behind a specific CRM exertion is to

upgrade circulation efficiencies by decreasing general appropriation

expense, measuring the program's effect on revenue development and

the customer's share of the business may not be proper. For this

situation, the system must be assessed focused around its effect on

decreasing appropriation costs and on other measurements that are

adjusted to those goals. By blending the goals and execution

measures one would hope to see more objective directed managerial

activity by those included in dealing with the relationship.

For measuring CRM execution, an adjusted scorecard that

consolidates a mixture of measures focused around the characterized

motivation behind each program (or every helpful/community

relationship) is proposed (Kaplan & Norton, 1992)44. As it were, the

execution assessment measurements for every relationship or CRM

system ought to reflect the set of characterized destinations for the

system. Notwithstanding, certain global measures of the effect of a

CRM exertion by an organization are likewise conceivable. Srivastava,

Tassadduq, and Fahey (1998)45 created a model to propose the benefit

esteem of agreeable relationships to firms. On the off chance that the

44 Kaplan, R. S. & Norton, D. (1992, January-February), “The Balanced Scorecard –Measures that Drive
Performance.” Harvard Business Review, 70, 71-79.
45Srivastava, R. K., T. A. Shervani, and L. Fahey (1998), “Market-Based Assets and Shareholder Value,”

Journal of Marketing, 62 (1), 2-18.

44
agreeable and community oriented relationship with customers is

dealt with as an immaterial stake of the firm, its economic quality

include could be evaluated utilizing marked down future money

stream gauges. In a few ways, the estimation of relationships is like

the idea of the brand value of the firm and thus numerous researchers

have suggested the term relationship value (Bharadwaj, 1994;

Peterson, 1995). Despite the fact that a overall acknowledged model

for measuring relationship value is not accessible in the writing so far,

companies are attempting to gauge its esteem, especially in measuring

the immaterial holdings of the firm.

An alternate global measure utilized by firms to screen CRM execution

is the estimation of relationship satisfaction. Like the estimation of

customer satisfaction, which is presently widely connected in

numerous companies, relationship satisfaction estimation would help

in figuring out to what degree social accomplices are fulfilled by their

current helpful and synergistic relationships. Not at all like customer

satisfaction measures that are connected to measure satisfaction on

one side of the dyad, relationship satisfaction measures could be

connected on both sides of the dyad. Since both the customer and the

marketing firm need to perform keeping in mind the end goal to create

the brings about a helpful relationship, each one party's relationship

satisfaction should be measured. By measuring relationship

satisfaction, one could evaluate the inclination of either gathering to

proceed with or end the relationship. Such an inclination could

45
likewise be indirectly measured by measuring customer loyalty

(Reichheld & Sasser, 1990)46. At the point when relationship

satisfaction or loyalty estimation scales are designed focused around

the precursors, they can give rich data on their determinants and

consequently help companies distinguish those managerial activities

that are liable to enhance relationship satisfaction and/or loyalty.

Customer relationship management related activities make a dramatic

impact on profitability. The characterization of CRM by mirrors the

view. According to him, CRM seeks to establish ‘long term, committed,

trusting and cooperative relationships with customers, characterized

by openness, genuine concern for the delivery of high quality services,

responsiveness to customer suggestions, fair dealing and the

willingness to sacrifice short term advantage for long term gains’. In

yet another view of CRM with reference to profitability Fox & Stead,

200147 define CRM to be ‘the establishment, development,

maintenance and optimization of long term mutually valuable

relationships between consumers and the organizations’. Successful

customer relationship management focuses on understanding the

needs and desires of the customers and is achieved by placing the

needs at the heart of the business by integrating them with the

organization's strategy, people, technology and business processes.

Processes in turn alter the business performance of the organization.

46Reichheld, F. and Sasser, W.E. (1990), "Zero defections: quality comes to service", Harvard Business
Review, Vol. 68 No. 5, pp. 32-40.
47Fox, Tricia, and Steve Stead (2001), “Customer Relationship Management: Delivering the Benefits,”

White Paper, CRM (UK) Ltd. and SECOR Consulting Ltd., Stirling and Surrey, UK.
46
Customer profitability is developing as an important measurement in

which every (extraordinary) customer can be portrayed. A focus on

customer-level profitability can likewise be considered as an

impression of marketing's changing part inside the firm. In this

connection, it is important that marketing has customarily falled

behind other functional areas of business concerning the execution of

cost control systems. An alternate variable behind the enthusiasm

toward customer profitability (and its connections to conduct and

state of mind) is the advancement of data innovation, e.g. in terms of

''data warehouses'', which allows for a definite dissection of every

customer.

Regardless of the becoming enthusiasm toward customer profitability,

recognizing profitable customers is liable to be simpler said than

accomplished for generally organizations. The fundamental reason is

that few organizations have an internal accounting system, which

allows for an examination of profitability at the individual customer

level as claimed by numerous academicians (Reichheld, 1996). In real

practice profitability data on the customer level are by and large not

gathered in observational studies did by marketing researchers. When

its all said and done, profitability lies at the heart of the marketing

idea. Thus, marketing's connection to profitability is pushed in the

meanings of marketing offered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing

and the American Marketing Association. It is accepted, in short, that

it is more profitable to continue existing customers than to draw in

47
new customers, and it is generally expected that customer fulfillment

serves as an especially important forerunner of customer retention

and subsequently long-term customer relationships. Nonetheless, to

establish the connection between Customer relationship and

profitability needs more studies.

Customer profitability is a customer-level variable. It alludes to the

revenues less the costs which one specific customer generates over a

given time of time. All things considered, this variable alludes to the

supplier's value of having one specific customer, not the customer's

value of having a specific supplier. Customer profitability shows up in

two transient structures in marketing-related writing. To start with, it

shows up as a matter of authentic record. In this sense, a customer

profitability dissection is like the company's profit and misfortune

articulation. The fundamental distinction is that a customer

profitability examination alludes to one specific customer, while a

profit and misfortune explanation alludes to all customers. A history-

situated customer profitability examination can be made at a few

levels. A typical purpose of flight is to compute the commitment edge

(horrible commitment edge), i.e. sales revenue less all item related

costs for all items sold to an individual customer amid one specific

time of time. At that point, contingent upon the accessibility of data,

sales, general and regulatory costs traceable to the individual

customer are subtracted. The result of this calculation is the working

profit generated by the customer. An augmentation of this line of

48
speculation is the reckoning of ''customer profit for resources'', i.e.

customer profitability isolated by e.g. the entirety of accounts

receivable and stock (Rust et al., 1996)48.

The other is customer profitability, which often takes the form of the

output from a net present value analysis. The output is sometimes

referred to as the ‘‘lifetime value’’ of a customer. It has been defined,

for example, as the stream of expected future profits, net of costs, on a

customer’s transactions, discounted at some appropriate rate back to

its current net present value. A similar concept is ‘‘customer equity’’

which is seen as a function of the customer’s volume of purchases,

margin per unit of purchase, and acquisition, development and

retention costs traceable to this customer.

CRM as a success factor. CRM requires considerable investments and

changes in operational and organizational structures (Homburg et al.,

2000)49. The ultimate question is therefore whether customer

orientation and the implementation of customer relationships are

indeed important for a company’s performance. Reichheld and Sasser

(1990) presented an early and influential study that showed the

tremendous impact that customer retention has on profitability and

improves business performance. specifically showed that the longer

48RustRT, Zahorik AJ & Keinigham TL, 1996, Service Marketing, HarperCollins, New York Taylor SE,
1991, Asymmetrical Effects of Positive and Negative Events: The Mobilization- Minimization Hypothesis,
Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 110, No. 1, 67-85
49Homburg, Christian and Christian Pflesser (2000), “A Multiple- Layer Model of Market-Oriented

Organizational Culture: Measurement Issues and Performance Outcomes,” Journal of Marketing

Research, 37 (November), 449–62.
49
the customer relationship lasts, the greater its profitability becomes.

These authors’ conclusions were supported by (Storbacka et al.,

1994).

Research and practical experience have offered a generally positive

portrait of the effect of customer relationship management (CRM) on

firm performance. It is argued sometimes that a company’s strategic

commitments may be an overlooked organizational factor that

influences the rewards for a company’s investments in CRM. The

study and practice of customer relationship management (CRM) has

experienced explosive growth over the past decade and extensive

research provides various insights into the relationship between a

company’s CRM investments and its performance. (Gupta, Lehmann,

and Stuart, 2004)50 find that customer acquisition and retention

expenses have a significant, positive effect on firm value. Other

studies report a positive relationship between a company’s CRM

technology investments and CRM performance (Jayachandran et al.,

2004; Mithas, Krishnan, and Fornell, 2005)51,52. Other studies

envisage CRM as a firm capability and, again, reports its positive

effects on both CRM and business performance. Specifically, when

effect of a company’s CRM on CRM performance is seen, as measured

by customer satisfaction ratings, it is influenced by its prior strategic

50Gupta, Sunil, Donald R. Lehmann, and Jennifer Ames Stuart (2004), “Valuing Customers,” Journal of
Marketing Research, 40 (February), 7–18.
51Jayachandran, Satish, Kelly Hewett, and Peter Kaufman (2004), “Customer Response Capability in a

Sense-and-Respond Era: The Role of Customer Knowledge Process,” Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science, 32 (Summer), 219–33.
52Mithas, Sunil, M.S. Krishnan, and Claes Fornell (2005), “Why Do Customer Relationship Management

Applications Affect Customer Satisfaction?” Journal of Marketing, 69 (October), 201–209.

50
commitments. Strategic commitments can involve any long-term firm

decision, such as the choice to enter specific markets or invest in

products, brands, channels, or partnerships or technology.

Notwithstanding hypothetical improvement, an essential for the

connected advancement of CRM is that it ought to evidently improve

firm execution. This is an important quality in the assessment of any

firm or marketing movement. Writing audit generously demonstrates

the conviction that the usage of CRM activities prompts firm value.

Organizations have created demonstrated CRM practices that upgrade

firm execution. Utilizing a detailed analysis approach, (Ryals, 2001)53

shows that one of the business units she studied was able to achieve

a 270% increase in business unit profits (above target) by

implementing several straightforward CRM measures. Using a multi-

firm (cross-sectional) database, show that companies that invest more

in CRM activities and technology have greater customer satisfaction.

Using another multi-firm database, (Mithas, Krishnan, and Fornell,

2005) show that the use of CRM applications is associated with

increased customer knowledge, which in turn is associated with

greater customer satisfaction.

Using yet another multi-firm database, show that firm performance

measured in terms of retention and customer satisfaction is greater

53Ryals, Lynette, and Simon Knox (2001), “Cross-Functional Issues in the Implementation of Relationship
Marketing Through Customer Relationship Management,” European Management Journal, 19 (5), 534–
542.
51
for companies that have good relational information processes in

place. all use data collected within a single firm over time to develop

specific CRM applications to increase the company’s performance.

Gustafsson, Johnson, and Roos (2005)54 examine customer behavior

over time and show that some of the intermediate relationship

performance measures that emerge from the business-to-business

literature (e.g., satisfaction, calculative commitment) directly and

positively influence actual behavior in the form of retention within a

business-to-consumer setting. (Payne and Frow, 2005)55 emphasize

that one major element in any CRM system is the measure relate to

the value creation process. Thus, good CRM process measures provide

the firm with the opportunity to gain deeper insights into how these

intermediate process measures link to downstream firm performance.

54Gustafsson, Anders, Michael D. Johnson, and Inger Roos (2005), “The Effects of Customer Satisfaction,
Relationship Commitment Dimensions, and Triggers on Customer Retention,” Journal of Marketing, 69
(October), 210–18.
55Payne, A. F. T., & Frow, P. (2005).A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management.

Cranfield University Working Paper, in review.

52
 CHAPTER – 2

INDIAN OIL CORPORATION : AN OVERVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Indian Oil, ‘The Energy of India’ has always been fulfilling nation’s

energy demand, which is the basic need for any country’s growth and

development. Be it scorching heat or extreme cold, day or night, plains

or hills, we work indefatigably so that our countrymen always

maintain speed and momentum.

However, global economic crisis, climate change and occurrence of

frequent natural calamities compelled us to reanalyze our strategy,

which is primarily growth focused. We have understood that economic

growth alone cannot sustain the world. We need amore sustainable

approach to growth and development.

Indian Oil with over 34,000 strong workforce, is meeting the growing

energy needs of the nation in economically, environmentally and

socially responsible way. This involves running our operations

responsibly today and building a sustainable energy system for

tomorrow.

Indian Oil is India’s highest ranked Indian corporatein the prestigious

Fortune ‘Global 500’ listing at 88thrank in year 2013. Indian Oil and
53
its subsidiaries own and operate 10 of India’s 22 refineries and its

crosscountrynetwork of over 11,000 kms of crude oil, products and

gas pipelines, which is the largest in the country. Indian Oil has a

portfolio of powerful and much-loved energy brands that include

Indane,

LP Gas, SERVO lubricants, XTRAPREMIUM petrol,XTRAMILE diesel,

etc.Indian Oil is vertically integrated energy company through

Exploration and Production activities on the upstream and

Petrochemicals and gas marketing on the downstream within India

and abroad. For future growth prospects, Renewable Energy Portfolio

of Wind and Solar Energy generation, Feedstock production of Bio

fuels and Ethanol blending and Nuclear Energy generation in

association with NPCIL have been embraced. With aworld-class R&D

Centre, Indian Oil conducts pioneering work in lubricants

formulation, refining processes, cost effective pipeline transportation

and development of alternative fuels.

Indian Oil’s journey in E&P is gaining strength step by step with a

view to establishing itself as an operator as well as global upstream

player. After acquiring stake in Carabobo, Venezuela, two oil wells

have come into production. Additionally, 10% working interest in

producing Shale Oil condensate asset in USA has been acquired along

with Oil India Limited. As an

54
operator in Cambay Blocks, Indian Oil is gaining valuable experience.

With facilities spread over the entire nation and ever-expanding

market opportunities, Indian Oil has become a truly integrated energy

company. Government of India holds 78.92% share in Indian Oil. The

administrative control of the company vests with Government of India

and therefore, various policy decisions forms the underlining

principles of our Corporate Governance. Indian Oil has also

successfully combined its corporate social responsibility agenda with

its business offerings to millions of people.

2.2 SUSTAINABILITY

Indian Oil, a globally admired Energy Company is becoming a key

player in the evolution of India’s strategy for sustainable development

by addressing the concerns for environment, aspirations of

community and creating values for stakeholders.

Our commitment to sustainability has its roots in our vision.

Accordingly we have formulated our sustainability strategy that

supports our communities, enhance our business relationships to

create a brighter future for our next generation. Our sustainability

strategy allows us to focus on long-term sustainable business

opportunities, manage risks, enhance our corporate reputation and to

get competitive advantage.

55
In developing plans for the future, we are mindful of our influence on

natural resources and their development. We understand our

responsibility towards society, the role we have to play to address the

menace of climate change and other sustainability challenges.

During the year, we continued to carry out eco-foot printing exercise,

wherein mapping of green house gas emissions, water consumption

and waste generation were carried out on ‘as is’ basis. Additionally,

during the year, energy audit of office buildings was carried out in

various locations. A number of mitigation actions, such as

commissioning of rainwater harvesting systems, solarization of retail

outlets, installation of organic waste converters, organizing carbon-

neutral events, sustainability seminars and conducting awareness

generation programmes were also carried out during the year.

With our sustainability initiatives and conducive policy environment,

Indian Oil has forayed into green energy generation, which is an

attractive and rewarding investment to minimize interactions of our

business operations with environment.

In the fields of carbon mitigation, waste management and energy

management, we have outperformed our targets for the year 2012-13.

Following tables show our performance of the last year and our target

for the next year.

56
Table 2.1: Performance (Last Year) and Target (Next Year).

Use of Renewable energy against the conventional source i.e. fossil

fuel energy is the key business enabler to reduce GHG. Our first on
on-

grid wind power system of 21 MW was commissioned in2009 at

Kutch, Gujarat and first on-grid

on solar
ar PVpower plant of 5 MW

capacities in 2012 at Rajasthan

Rajasthan. Our on grid wind power projects of a

combined capacity of 48.3 MW are commissioned at two sites in

Andhra Pradesh. The grid

grid-connected
connected renewable energy generation

during the year crossed the 100 GWh mark.

57
Figure2.1: Total Generation of Renewable Energy.

Indian Oil has completed Jatropha plantation in about 8000 ha of

wasteland in the states of MP, UP and Chhattisgarh. Our joint venture

company Indian Oil-CREDA Biofuels Limited supplied 172kLof de-

metalled and degummed Jatropha oil to Chennai Petroleum

Corporation Limited for pilotstudies on co-processing of vegetable oils

for production of green diesel, which was successfully co-processed

during the year using the technology developed by our R&D Centre.

We have ventured into nuclear energy generation of 1400 MW

Capacity through a JV namely “NPCIL Indian Oil Nuclear Energy

Corporation Limited”, with an equity participation of 26% in the

Rajasthan Atomic Power Project. We are poised to commence power

generation by 2017.

Policy –

58
In pursuit of this Policy, Indian Oil is committed:

• To conduct business in a sustainable manner while meeting

stakeholders’ aspirations for value creation and growth

• To enrich quality
ality of life of communities around its locations

• To work towards lowering waste and carbon footprint by judicious

and efficient use of resources

• To engage employees & business partners as change agents for

sustainable practices

• To be a partner in nation’s strategy for deployment of sustainability

initiatives

• Reinforcing its commitment towards Sustainability, Indian Oil

launched its Sustainability policy together with Framework, Roles

and Responsibilities for Sustainable Development, Plan and

Organizational structure for monitoring Sustainability

performance.

Figure2.2:: Sustainability policy.

59
2.3 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

We believe that good Corporate Governance practices ensure ethical

and efficient conduct of the affairs of the company and also help in

maximizing values for all stakeholders. We have built an environment

of trust and confidence among all the constituents. The Company

upholds the principles and practices of Corporate Governance to

ensure transparency, integrity and accountability in its functioning.

Indian Oil recognizes that good Corporate Governance is a continuous

exercise and reiterates its commitment to pursue highest standards of

Corporate Governance in the overall interest of stakeholders. For

effective implementation of the Corporate Governance practices,

Indian Oil has a well-defined policy framework.

Board Profile –

As on 31st March 2013 the strength of the Board of Directors was

15comprising of 8 executives (Whole-time Functional) Directors

(including Chairman), and 7 part time Nonexecutive Directors, out of

which 5 are Independent Directors. Indian Oil, being a PSU,

government nominates Directors and as on 31st March 2013, two

Government Nominee Directors were in the Board. Women

representative in the Board is 6.67%.

60
All our Directors belong to General category and are above 50 years of

age. The Board members are persons with proven record in diverse

areas like energy,, law, academics, finance, economics,, marketing,

administration, etc.. The Board is the highest governance body for

guiding the overall strategy

strategy, policies and oversee their implementation.
implementation

To facilitate smooth and efficient flow of decision, various Board

Committees have been constituted

constituted.. The agenda placed before the

Board
rd on various issues and details of the Board meetings held during

2012-13
13 are depicted in our annual report.

Figure2.3: Board of Directors – IOCL.

61
Ethics and code of conduct –

Indian Oil is an equal opportunity employer. There is no

discrimination for employment or growth and development on the

basis of caste, color, gender, religion or region. Indian Oil focuses on

improving the skills of its human asset.

Indian Oil has a structured grievance handling procedure for

employees. A Grievance/Complaint Record is also maintained for

registering grievances/ representations received from OBC/SC/ST

employees and grievances so registered are promptly considered for

resolution.

A well defined and strictly implemented policy on prevention of sexual

harassment at the workplace is in place. During the year, 2complaints

related to sexual harassment were filed and were dealt as per rules.

During the reporting period, no cases of indigenous rights and

discriminatory practices reported. Nonfinancial and in-kind

contributions were given to political parties, politicians, and related

institutions.

Sustainable Procurement –

Indian Oil encourages participation in its business procurement

process from small and medium enterprises as per Public

Procurement Policy for MSMEs issued by Govt. of India. We do not

62
prefer any local vendors for our procurement process as it is done on

competitive bidding. Also, we have sound e-procurement practices

based on the principles of competitiveness and such procurement

practices are executed in manner that is transparent, fair, competitive

and cost effective.

Risk Management –

Indian Oil has laid down the Enterprise Risk Management Policy and

Procedures for risk assessment and mitigation. As per the ‘Risk

Management Policy’ of Indian Oil, a ‘Risk Management Compliance

Board’ is established. A meeting of Senior Officials is convened once

every quarter to assess various risks (both internal &external,

including climate change related risks) and are categorized as ‘A’ and

‘B’ category risks.

This committee debates these issues threadbare and devises action

plans to mitigate them. These are presented to the Executive

Committee, which consists of Chairman and functional Directors of

the Board.

Human Rights –

63
Indian Oil follows high standards of human right values. All of our

General Conditions of Contract with our suppliers and contractors

meet human rights requisites. It mainly covers gender sensitive

approaches like separate toilets, washing and bathing places,

providing crèches to mothers bearing children of age below 6 years.

Canteen facilities and medical precautions are must for both women

and men. Nondiscrimination in the payroll is allowed on the basis of

gender, caste, creed, religion and race. All our locations are monitored

and reviewed to reduce human right risks. Under Community

Development Programme for deprived section of the society,

development funds towards Special Component Plan (SCP) and Tribal

Sub Plan (TSP) are already implemented.

Liaison officers are appointed at various locations/units/ installations

all over the country to ensure implementation of Government

directives. Indian Oil scrupulously follows the presidential directives

and guidelines issued by GOI regarding reservation in services for SC/

ST/OBC/ PH, etc to promote inclusive growth.

Indian Oil has implemented the provisions of the Disabilities Act 1995

by way of 3% reservation for physically challenged and disabled

persons. In addition, various concessions and relaxations are being

extended to the physically challenged in the recruitment process.

64
Anti-Corruption and Anti – Competitive Behavior-

Indian Oil consistently works against corruption in all its forms. Our

Conduct, Discipline and Appeal rules outline our approach to

assessing fraud risks, reporting, investigating and responding to

suspected incidents of fraud and corruption which is mandatory for

all our employees to comply with. As a responsible corporate citizen,

Indian Oil undertakes and implements widely accepted initiatives like

the Grievance Re-dressily mechanism and the Whistleblower policy.

Our Vigilance Cell carries out preventive activities like increasing

awareness regarding the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

rules/guidelines, ensuring quality and quantity of products in transit

as well as sales points across the country, conducting system studies

to bring out irregularities/ inconsistencies, bringing transparency and

economy in awarding as well as execution of contracts. 100% of our

units are analyzed for anti-corruption and related risks.

Number of training programs and workshops are held for spreading

knowledge related to checking and identifying corruption. Indian Oil

has an inbuilt mechanism to check anti competitive behavior and

complies with all government policies. Since last 5 years, two cases

have beenfiled against the company relating to an anticompetitive

behavior. One case is pending before the Competition Commission of

India (CCI)wherein complainant has alleged cartelization by Oil

65
Marketing Companies, for collusive bidding against tender of NACIL

for ATF supplies. The Delhi High Court has stayed the proceedings

before CCI. In another case a party has alleged on- competitive price

due to cartelization by Sugar Manufacturers & joint tendering by

OMCsfor ethanol. The CCI dismissed the proceedings and an appeal

by the party is pending before the appellate authority.

2.4 ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

The year 2012-13 was marked by challenging economic environment

both globally &domestically. Global economic growth decelerated to

3.1% in 2012 from 3.9% recorded in 2011. While US& Japan

witnessed mild acceleration in their growth, the overall performance of

the advanced economies deteriorated with output declining in the

Euro Area as it continued to be in the clutches of the Sovereign debt

crisis. Another setback to the global growth was the broad-based

deceleration for a second year in a row in the Emerging Economies

Group.

For the Indian economy, the year was marked by slowing growth and

concerns over macroeconomic stability. GDP growth slipped to

5percent-the lowest India has seen in over a decade. Industrial

slowdown and slump in investment aggravated during the year on

account of infrastructural bottlenecks, high interest rates, delay in

clearances and acted as major drag on the growth. High oil, coal and

66
gold imports coupled with decline in exports contributed significantly

in the spiking of CAD from 4.2 percent in 2011-12 to 6.7 percent of

GDP in Q3 of 2012-13, which was contained to4.8 percent of GDP for

the full year 2012-13through abatement measures. The depreciation

of Rupee, which has intensified lately, has further added to these

concerns. Inflation did show signs of moderation though it continued

to elevate. During the year, WPI inflation stood at 6percent as

compared to 8 percent in the previous year. Fiscal deficit during the

year provisionally estimated at 4.9 percent of GDP was lower than the

Budget Estimate of 5.1percent of GDP.

During 2012, global energy consumption growth slowed down to 1.8

percent from 2.5 percent recorded in 2011 on account of deceleration

in global economic activity. On the supply side, the overall situation

was mixed, while on one hand, geo-political uncertainties and supply

outages did continue to disturb the energy markets, on the other

hand, there were positive developments such large scale gas finds in

East Africa, steady progress on the unconventional hydrocarbons

production front, especially in the US and the boom in the global LNG

sector.

Crude oil prices also moderated on an average during the year and

while natural gas prices fellin USA, they rose in Europe & Asia. On the

demand side, consumption in OECD countries declined by 1.2 percent

led by a decline of 2.8

67
Percent in the US. As regards, the Non-OECDcountries, consumption

growth decelerated to 4.2percent from 5.3 percent in 2011.

Petroleum products, after coal are the largest source of meeting energy

needs in India. Petroleum products are the mainstay of the Indian

transportation sector, have a large marketing the household sector,

agriculture and industry as well. The Corporation's strategy with

respect to its core business operations is a two-pronged one, where

while it focuses on expansion, it also focuses on raising the efficiency

bar of the existing and new ventures.

In the refining space, the Corporation has been continuously

upgrading and expanding its refineries to meet the changing product

demand patterns, environmental norms and increasing demand. In

addition, a major focus is on setting up new grass-root refineries with

world scale capacity having higher complexity in Coast allocations to

cash on the growing petroleum products demand in India. In line with

that Corporation’s 15 MMTPA refineries at Paradip in Odisha is

upcoming. On the operational front focus is on cost optimization, and

accordingly the crude basket is being expanded steadily to include

cheaper opportunity crudes. IndianOilhas not received any financial

assistance from the Government of India during the reporting period.

On the marketing front, the Corporation has stronghold over the

market, with its pan India sales network being its major strength. The

68
year witnessed significant changes in the policy domain, which are set

to bring about structural changes in the petroleum products market

in the country. This new paradigm will be defined by high levels of

Competition as the retail market opens up to the dynamics of market

forces. The Corporation’s strategy for maintaining its leadership in the

retail business rests on the twoCs of Customer Loyalty & Cost

Optimization.

Technology solutions such as automation of infrastructure, GPS

enabled vehicle tracking systems, modernization of the dispensing

units, improving Retail Visual Identities of retail outlets, imparting

training to dealers and pump

Attendants, Infrastructure rationalization and retail network

expansion are key focus areas in pursuit of this.

As regards its pipeline network focus on the crude pipelines front is to

enhance capability of pipelines to transport heavier crude oil, on

product pipelines front focus is on scaling up theLPG pipelines

network and as regards gas, focus is to establish a significant position

in the upcoming national natural gas grid.

The Corporation has established itself as the second largest player in

the Indian Petrochemicals market. Indian Petrochemicals market has

high growth potential and has been growing at impressive rates. The

Corporation has sizeable investment plans lined up for the

69
Petrochemicals space. A major thrust is to enter the import

substitution market. The Corporation’s Butadiene Extraction Unit and

Butene -1 project at Panipat are under steady progress. The

Corporation is also setting upcountry's first Styrene Butadiene Rubber

(SBR) unit in Panipat, which has reached advanced stages of

implementation. In the market for polymers, where your Corporation

has recently ventured thrust is to enter niche & specialized markets.

Human Resource is the mainstay of any organization. Attracting and

retaining the required talent is a continuing challenge for the

Corporation. As Corporation's business in areas beyond its core

expands, it has been working towards diversification of its talent pool

as well. Initiatives for bringing in greater transparency, fairness and

equity for the employees in respect to their career paths are thrust

areas for the Corporation. A major challenge that has emerged in the

context of the changing business realities that are set to play in, as

competition in the market increases is to equip, train, facilitate,

motivate and rationalize its manpower.

2.5 ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

One of the greatest challenges for the 21stcentury is the increasing

temperature of the planet. Carbon dioxide levels have reached its

highest throughout human history, as per the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Mauna Loa observatory in

70
Hawaii. The 9th May 2013 reading of the observatory was first notified

to break the symbolic milestone of 400 parts per million which was

later revised to 399.89. This might be taken in the context that at 450

PPM, it is predicted that the global temperatures will rise by 2°C above

pre industrial levels by the International Energy Agency bringing

about widespread climate change effects. We are moving closer to

adverse impacts of climate change - changing landscapes, stronger

storms and increased storm related damages, higher temperatures,

increased risk of drought, rising seas, more heat related illness and

diseases and wildlife at risk.

As a major supplier of energy, Indian Oil believes sit has a

responsibility to take lead in finding and implementing plans to

counteract climate change. We recognize preservation of ecological

balance as a core commitment for ensuring abetter world for the

future generations.

A total of 120 schemes with estimated savings of1, 20,000 SRFT have

been implemented during the year which has resulted in operational

efficiency improvement. The impact of additional savings with major

ENCON investments in 2013-14 would be approx. 83000 SRFT. Some

of the major Energy Saving projects during 2012-13were:

71
• Optimization of Hydrogen use and improved recovery through PSA

(Pressure Swing Adsorption) systems has enabled idling of one

Hydrogen Generation Unit each at three of the refineries.

• Pre-heat improvements in AU (Atmospheric Unit)-4 at Gujarat

refinery and AU (Atmospheric Unit)-I/II at Barauni refinery for

savings in energy consumption.

• Better process integration for improved heat recovery at Guwahati

refinery (kerosene-1 and (Coker Gas Oil)-CR (Circulating Reflux)

streams) and Panipat refinery (Naphtha Splitter) and MSQ (Motor

Spirit Quality Up-gradation Unit).

• Savings in power consumption by installation of step-less

controllers for compressors in DHDT (Diesel Deep Hydro-treating

Unit) at Mathura refinery and Once through Hydrocracker Units

(OHCU) at Haldia refinery.

• Optimization in Gas/Oil ratios in DHDT at Barauni refinery and

OHCU in Haldia refinery for lower power consumption of recycle

gas compressors.

• Full back pressure mode operation of TG1(Turbo-generator1) at

Barauni refinery, improvement in operating efficiency of GT(Gas

Turbine)-2 at Gujarat refinery and STGs (Steam Turbo-generator)

at Panipat and condenser cleaning for increased power generation

efficiency at these refineries.

72
Figure2.4:: Estimated savings of Standard Refinery Fuel in Tones

(SRFTs).

• The use of variable frequency drive for mainline pumping unit and

use of Drag Reducer Agent (DRA) in mainline to increase the flow of

the product in pipeline facilities.

• Other activities that are spread extensively across organization

such as solar powered equipments, energy efficient gadgets, use of

light pipes for day

day-lighting etc.

Indian Oil’s relentless efforts towards Energy Conservation resulted in

reduction of overall specific energy consumption to

56.3MBTU/BBL/NRGF (MBN) during 2012

2012-13against
13against the earlier

lowest of 57 in 2011
2011-12. This has been possible through

implementation of various energy saving schemes and close

monitoring of energy parameters.

73
As a part of sustainability drive Indian Oil is making its office

buildings green and energy efficient. Leadership in Energy and

Environmental Design (LEED), an international green building rating

system providing a green building status/certification from Indian

Green Building Council (IGBC) or US Green Building Council

(USGBC). Our recently commissioned Administration Building and

Learning Center Building of the Panipat Naphtha Cracker Project have

been awarded the ‘Green Building Certification and Gold rating’ under

LEED system of rating by IGBC.

The Award heralds a new era and the first major step of Indian Oil

towards greening of its habitats, since these are among the first

buildings of Indian Oil, ever to be Green certified with a ‘Gold Rating’.

The Green rating has been awarded considering several environments

related attributes defined by LEED, which includes: sustainability of

site, water efficiency, energy efficiency, eco-friendly material sand

resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation and design

process. Some of the features that were instrumental in achieving this

rare accolade include the superior architectural design, use of

recyclable material such as tiles, glass, and gypsum board, building

management system for controlling thermal comfort etc.

74
2.6 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Indian Oil’s CSR related objectives are aptly enshrined in its CSR

goals are "…to help enrich the quality of life of the indigenous

communities and preserve ecological balance and heritage through

strong environment conscience...”. At present, IndianOil has a policy

of setting aside up to 2% of its retained profit of the previous year

towards CSRactivities. Health & Medical Care, Education and Clean

Drinking Water are the CSR thrust areas ofIndianOil. The key

objectives of Indian Oil CSRinitiatives are as under:

• Initiatives to enrich quality of life in the communities around

Indian Oil’s operating locations.

• Efforts towards sustainability of CSR projects.

• To positively impact economic conditions and livelihood.

• Foster a culture of ‘CSR’ amongst employees, business associates

and stakeholders.

• Make business associates responsible for undertaking CSR

activities around their workplaces/ operational areas.

• Create community goodwill for Indian Oil through CSR initiatives

and help establish/ retain image of Indian Oil as a Responsible

Corporate Citizen.

• Provide leadership and industry benchmark in CSR initiatives.

75
Policy guidelines provided by the Board Committee on CSR and

Sustainable Development (SD) are implemented in a focused and

structured manner. A dedicated CSR cell is functioning at Corporate

Office to specifically plan and monitor/co-ordinate the CSR activities.

Additional manpower in middle management and senior management

cadre have been deployed at Divisional, Regional and Unit levels to

implement CSR activities.

All CSR programmes / projects are implemented with impact

assessment carried out in line with CSR guidelines issued by

Department of Public Enterprises, Government of India. Various social

welfare initiatives viz. health & medical care, education and clean

drinking water with focus on welfare of the economically and socially

deprived sections of society are implemented, mostly in the vicinity of

installations/establishments for improving quality of life of the

community. No case is reported during the year where indigenous

communities are affected by our operations. During 2012-13, Indian

Oil’s CSR investment was Rs. 78.97 crore. No significant fines were

reported for non-compliance with laws and regulations during the

reporting year.

IOCL’s Indian Oil Foundation (IOF) formed in alliance with

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and National Culture Fund (NCF)

of the Government of India was formed with the objective to protect,

76
preserve and promote national heritage. Having initially taken up the

project of installing a Swatantrya Jyot (flame of freedom) in the

Cellular Jail at Port Blair, Andaman & NicobarIslands in

remembrance of hundreds of brave Indians who suffered incarceration

in this jail during the freedom struggle, IOF has been assisting ASI &

NCF in maintaining and upgrading facilities at Konark (Odisha),

Khajuraho (MP), Vaishali (Bihar) and Warangal Fort (AP).

Simultaneous efforts are also being made to involve students of class

9th and 10th through heritage awareness programs, imbibing the

importance of heritage and the need to preserve it among the

participants.

77
 CHAPTER – 3

INTRODUCTION TO PETROLEUM MARKET

3.1: ENERGY SECTOR: AN OVERVIEW

Energy is one of the major inputs for the economic development of any

country. In the case of the developing countries, the energy sector

assumes a critical importance in view of the ever increasing energy

needs requiring huge investments to meet them.

Primary energy sources are those that are either found or stored in

nature. Common primary energy sources are coal, oil, natural gas,

and biomass (such as wood). Other primary energy sources available

include nuclear energy from radioactive substances, thermal energy

stored in earth's interior, and potential energy due to earth's gravity.

Primary energy sources are mostly converted in industrial utilities into

secondary energy sources; for example coal, oil or gas converted into

steam and electricity. Primary energy can also be used directly. Some

energy sources have non-energy uses, for example coal or natural gas

can be used as a feedstock in fertilizer plants.

Although 80 percent of the world's population lies in the developing

countries (a fourfold population increase in the past 25 years), their

78
energy consumption amounts to only 40 percent of the world total

energy consumption.

The high standards of living in the developed countries are

attributable to high-energy consumption levels. Also, the rapid

population growth in the developing countries has kept the per capita

energy consumption low compared with that of highly industrialized

developed countries. The world average energy consumption per

person is equivalent to 2.2 tons of coal. In industrialized countries,

people use four to five times more than the world average and nine

times more than the average for the developing countries. An

American uses 32 times more commercial energy than an Indian.56

Coal dominates the energy mix in India, contributing to 55% of the

total primary energy production. Over the years, there has been a

marked increase in the share of natural gas in primary energy

production from 10% in 1994 to 13% in 1999. There has been a

decline in the share of oil in primary energy production from 20% to

17% during the same period.

Energy Supply-

Coal Supply - India has huge coal reserves, at least 84,396 million

tones of proven recoverable reserves (at the end of 2003). These

amounts to almost 8.6% of the world reserves and it may last for

56Energy Handbook, Von Nostrand Reinhold Company - Robert L. Loftness

79
about 230 years at the current Reserve to Production (R/P) ratio. In

contrast, the world's proven coal reserves are expected to last only for

192 years at the current R/P ratio.

Reserves/Production (R/P) ratio- If the reserves remaining at the

end of the year are divided by the production in that year, the result is

the length of time that the remaining reserves would last if production

were to continue at that level.

India is the fourth largest producer of coal and lignite in the world.

Coal production is concentrated in these states (Andhra Pradesh,

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa,

Jharkhand, West Bengal).

Oil Supply - Oil accounts for about 36 % of India's total energy

consumption. India today is one of the top ten oil-guzzling nations in

the world and will soon overtake Korea as the third largest consumer

of oil in Asia after China and Japan. The country's annual crude oil

production is peaked at about 32 million tones as against the current

Peak demand of about 110 million tones. In the current scenario,

India's oil consumption by end of 2007 is expected to reach 136

million tons(MT), of which domestic production will be only 34 MT.

India will have to pay an oil bill of roughly $50 billion, assuming a

weighted average price of $50 per barrel of crude. In 2003-04, against

total export of $64 billion, oil imports accounted for $21 billion. India
80
imports 70% of its crude needs mainly from gulf nations. The majority

of India's roughly 5.4 billion barrels in oil reserves are located in the

Bombay High, upper Assam, Cambay, Krishna-Godavari. In terms of

sector wise petroleum product consumption, transport accounts for

42% followed by domestic and industry with 24% and 24%

respectively. India spent more than Rs.1, 10,000 crore on oil imports

at the end of 2004.

Natural Gas Supply - Natural gas accounts for about 8.9 per cent of

energy consumption in the country. The current demand for natural

gas is about 96 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) as against

availability of 67 mcmd. By 2007, the demand is expected to be

around 200 mcmd. Natural gas reserves are estimated at 660 billion

cubic meters.

Electrical Energy Supply - The all India installed capacity of electric

power generating stations under utilities was 1,12,581 MW as on 31st

May 2004, consisting of 28,860 MW- hydro, 77,931 MW - thermal and

2,720 MW- nuclear and 1,869 MW- wind (Ministry of Power). The

gross generation of power in the year 2002-2003 stood at 531 billion

units (kWh).

Nuclear Power Supply - Nuclear Power contributes to about 2.4 per

cent of electricity generated in India. India has ten nuclear power

81
reactors at five nuclear power stations producing electricity. More

nuclear reactors have also been approved for construction.

Hydro Power Supply - India is endowed with a vast and viable hydro

potential for power generation of which only 15% has been harnessed

so far. The share of hydropower in the country's total generated units

has steadily decreased and it presently stands at 25% as on 31st May

2004. It is assessed that exploitable potential at 60% load factor is

84,000 MW.

The per capita energy consumption is too low for India as compared to

developed countries. It is just 4% of USA and 20% of the world

average. The per capita consumption is likely to grow in India with

growth in economy thus increasing the energy demand.57

India was the fourth-biggest vitality buyer in the world after China,

the United States,

what's more Russia in 2011, and its requirement for vitality supply

keeps on moving as a consequence of the nation's dynamic economic

development and modernization over the past a few years. India's

economy has developed at a normal yearly rate of give or take 7%

since 2000, and it demonstrated generally flexible after the 2008

global monetary emergency.

57Handbook of Energy Engineering , The Fairmont Press Inc - Albert Thumann

82
The most recent log jam in development of developing business

nations and higher expansion levels, consolidated with household

supply and framework obligations, have lessened India's yearly

expansion balanced horrible household item (GDP) development from

a high of 10.3% in 2010 to 4.4% in 2013, as per the International

Monetary Fund (IMF). India was the third-biggest economy in the

world in 2013, as measured on an obtaining force equality premise.

The BJP, chose as the greater part party in May 2014 to oversee India

in the accompanying five years, confronts difficulties to meet the

nation's developing vitality request by securing moderate vitality

supplies and pulling in speculation for foundation development. Very

directed fuel costs for consumers, fuel subsidies that are shouldered

by the legislature and state owned upstream companies, and

conflicting vitality sector change presently obstruct vitality venture

speculation. A few parts of the vitality sector, predominantly coal

creation, remain generally shut to private and outside speculation,

while others, for example, electric force, petroleum and different

fluids, and natural gas have directed value structures that debilitate

private venture.

Notwithstanding having huge coal stores and a sound development in

natural gas creation over the recent decades, India is progressively

subject to foreign made fossil fuels. In 2013, India's previous

petroleum and natural gas priest, Veerappa Moily, declared that his

83
service would take a shot at an activity plan to make India vitality

autonomous by 2030 through expanded fossil fuel creation,

development of assets, for example, coalbed methane and shale gas,

outside acquisitions by household Indian companies of upstream

hydrocarbon saves, decreased subsidies on engine fuels, and oil and

natural gas pricing changes. The current petroleum and natural gas

priest, Dharmendra Pradhan, who took office in late May 2014,

repeated the objective of making India independent in vitality assets.

India is likewise looking to further create and saddle its different

renewable vitality sources. These activities would adequately build

India's vitality supply and make more effectiveness in vitality

consumption.

India as of now started executing oil and gas pricing changes in the

course of recent years to cultivate supportable venture and help lower

subsidy costs. Essential vitality consumption in India has multiplied

somewhere around 1990 and 2012, arriving at an expected 32

quadrillion British warm units (Btu). The nation has the second-

biggest populace in the world, at more than 1.2 billion individuals in

2012, developing around 1.3% every year since 2008, as indicated by

World Bank data. In the meantime, India's for every capita vitality

consumption is one-third of the global normal, as indicated by the

Universal Energy Agency (IEA), demonstrating possibly higher vitality

request in the long term as the nation proceeds with its way of

economic development. In the International Energy Viewpoint 2013,

84
EIA ventures India and China will represent about a large portion of

global vitality request development through 2040, with India's vitality

interest developing at 2.8% for every year.

India's biggest vitality source is coal, trailed by petroleum and

customary biomass and waste. Since the start of the New Economic

Policy in 1991, India's populace progressively has moved to urban

communities, and urban families have shifted far from conventional

biomass and waste to other vitality sources, for example,

hydrocarbons, atomic, biofuels, and different renewable. The force

sector is the biggest and quickest developing range of vitality interest,

climbing from 22% to 36% of aggregate vitality consumption

somewhere around 1990 and 2011, as indicated by the IEA. India's

National Sample Survey Organization gauges that around 25% of the

populace (in excess of 300 million individuals) need fundamental

access to electricity, while jolted regions experience the ill effects of

moving electricity power outages.

He legislature tries to adjust the nation's developing requirement for

electricity with natural concerns from the utilization of coal and other

vitality sources to create that electricity. India's transportation sector,

principally fueled by petroleum items, is situated to extend as the

nation concentrates on enhancing street also line travel. The

legislature arrangements to order some option fuel use, especially with

85
biofuel mixes, and create more prominent utilization of mass travel

systems to point of confinement oil request development.

Fig 3.1: Total energy consumption in India, 2012.

As the Economic performance of the country rises, the requirement of

energy and particularly petroleum shall also increase. The GDP shall

have a direct linkage with the consumption of the petroleum products

as this commodity still consumes a major proportion of the export

earning towards fuel imports and shall continue to be so in future

years.58

3.2: PETROLEUM INDUSTRY: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Indian petroleum industry goes once again to 1890 when oil was

first struck at Digboi in northeastern India. Oil investigation and

58Indian Planning commission statistics

86
generation exercises were to a great extent bound to the northeast

until the 1970s when the most productive and critical Indian creating

bowl, Bombay High, was found. While the investigation and

generation sector stayed under the state control until 1991, the

Government policy now permits joint and in addition private sector to

take part in this sector.

India's first refinery was manufactured at Digboi in 1901. From that

point, more refineries were set up in the late 1950s and early 1960s

with the support of worldwide oil companies, for example, Shell,

Caltex and Esso to meet India's developing petroleum item needs.

In 1976, India nationalized the refining and marketing sector in light

of the oil emergency of the 1970s and presented administrative

controls on generation, imports, circulation and pricing of crude oil

and petroleum items. The Oil Coordination Board of trustees was

framed to go about as an administrative body in this respect. With the

key target of giving fundamental necessities to the economically

weaker areas of the general public at moderate rates, the

Administered Pricing Mechanism sponsored costs for items like lamp

fuel and LPG by correspondingly charging higher costs for different

items like gasoline and flying fuel. Diesel costs were kept impartial.

The Administered Pricing Mechanism guaranteed settled 12% post-tax

return on net worth sent for refining, conveyance and marketing of

87
petroleum items. Likewise, petroleum item costs were kept up at an

even level all through the nation by adjusting different subsidies

through various pool accounts. Then again, in 1991, basic parity of

installment position affected the Indian government to dispatch

general economic changes with the target of changing the directed

economy into a business sector driven one and draw in speculations

from the private sector.

Under the liberalization policy, various structural progressions have

as of now been effected in type of the private sector being permitted to

do refining and in addition marketing of a predetermined number of

petroleum items e.g. LPG, naphtha, Aviation fuel, fuel oil and so on.

The most noteworthy step towards liberalization in the oil business

however was proclaimed in November 1997 in manifestation of a

diagram for de-regulation of the Indian oil industry.

India was the fourth-biggest purchaser of oil and petroleum items

after the United States, China, and Japan in 2013, and it was

additionally the fourth-biggest net shipper of crude oil and petroleum

items. The hole between India's oil request and supply is widening, as

interest arrived at about 3.7 million barrels for every day (bbl/d) in

2013 contrasted with short of what 1 million bbl/d of aggregate fluids

creation. EIA undertakings India's interest will multiply to 8.2 million

bbl/d by 2040, while residential creation will remain moderately level,

floating around 1 million bbl/d. The high level of reliance on

88
transported in crude oil has headed Indian energy companies to

broaden their supply sources. To this end, Indian national oil

companies (NCOs) have acquired value stakes in abroad oil and gas

fields in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caspian Sea

locale to procure holds and creation capacity. Notwithstanding, the

dominant part of imports keep on going from the Middle East, where

Indian companies have minimal direct get to venture.

Fig 3.2: India petroleum and other liquids production and consumption,

2000-15.

Energy security is crucial for both sustaining high economic growth

and controlling inflation. With rapid economic growth, energy demand

in India has been rising rapidly, and India is now the fourth largest

consumer of crude oil in the world. Unfortunately, India has to import

most of its oil requirement, leading to severe pressure on the economy

when the oil prices rise. Thus, estimations of crude oil demand and

projections for the future should be useful to policy makers in making

appropriate supply arrangements for the future.

89
There are many different sources of energy consumption, such as

coal, crude oil, natural gas, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and nuclear

energy. Out of India’s total energy consumption, crude oil accounts for

24 per cent, natural gas 6 per cent, coal 40 per cent, combustible

renewable and waste 27 per cent, hydroelectric power 2 per cent, and

nuclear energy and wind energy about 1 per cent each; solar energy

has an insignificant share (IEA 2008). Thus, crude oil and coal

account for about two-thirds of India’s energy consumption.

While India is reasonably self-sufficient in coal, it imports most of its

crude oil requirement. Further, there are hardly any suitable

alternatives to crude oil derivatives such as petrol and diesel for

transportation purposes and most industrial machinery. Bio-fuels

cannot be used on a large scale in a land-scarce country such as

India, already struggling to produce sufficient food for its population.

Thus, controlling crude oil consumption is difficult. India consumed

nearly 3.25 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2010 and was the

fourth largest consumer of oil in the world next to the US, China, and

Japan. Of this, 70 per cent (nearly 2.2 million barrels per day) was

imported in 2010, largely from Middle Eastern countries; this level of

imports made it the fifth-largest importer of oil in the world. The

International Energy Agency (IEA) expects that India would become

90
the fourth largest net importer of oil in the world by 2025 after the US,

China, and Japan (and ahead of Germany).59

The petroleum business in India has been nearly managed: the Goi

(Government of India) has subjected each one connection in the chain

– E&p (investigation and generation), refining, marketing what's more

circulation – to controls and checks. The oil emergencies of the 1970s

were real drivers in provoking governments all over the world to

intercede in the oil sector. The mediation was particularly proclaimed

in oil importing nations, for example, India. As a consequence of the

value climb, the Indian oil industry experienced a transformation. The

guideline of import equality in pricing offered route to an APM

(administered pricing mechanism) with an orderly summon and

control framework. The need to guarantee oil security prompted the

securing of outside oil companies that practically controlled the oil

business in the first 50% of this century. Striking among these were

Burmah Shell, ESSO, Caltex, and Indo-Burmah Petroleum. The basis

was that all alone; markets would not give supply security or lead to

socially alluring conclusions.

Under the APM, all substances are guaranteed a base return on their

speculations. While the ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

Limited) and (Oil India Limited) are permitted a return of 15% on

59Adams,F. Gerard and Shachmurove, Yochanan (2008), ”Modeling and forecasting energy consumption
in China: Implications for Chinese energy demand and imports in 2020”, Energy Economics, 30, 1263-
1278.
91
utilized capital, the downstream companies get 12% (post tax) on their

total assets.

After Coal, Oil is the biggest energy hotspot for the nation with a share

of around 30.5% in the essential energy consumption basket1. The

high rate of economic development in the Indian economy has been

fuelled by an expanding interest for oil, and therefore, imports of

crude oil are additionally expanding. The indigenous generation of

crude oil has not been expanding in coupled with consumption and

interest for petroleum items. For a developing economy like India, this

hole is liable to increment over the impending years.

 Consumption of petroleum items amid 2012-13 was 157.1 million

metric tons (MMT) (counting sales through private imports) which

is 6.0% higher than the 148.1 MMT devoured amid 2011-12.

 During 2012-13 the nation transported in 184.8 MMT of crude oil

and 10.91 MMT LNG against 171.7 MMT and 11.63 MMT

separately amid 2011-12.

Being an ecologically clean fuel, Natural Gas is quick developing as an

option to fluid hydrocarbon. Natural Gas right away meets around

8.7% of the essential energy request. Considering the global pattern of

shift in energy blend from oil to natural gas, the share of natural gas

in hydrocarbon consumption in the Indian setting is additionally

prone to increment considerably in the days to come.

92
To take care of the developing energy demand throughout the

following few years, India will need to improve its energy security by

acquiring energy supplies at reasonable costs. While the nation has

surplus refining limit and is a net exporter of petroleum items, real

ventures will must be made in the local upstream industry and to gain

hydrocarbon saves abroad. To this it appears that the initial couple of

steps have as of now been taken, with the petroleum pastor, affirming

raising crude oil yield from Barmer oilfield in the state of Rajasthan,

and expressing that he is presently setting up a guide to cut India's

energy imports by half in next seven years to make India confident by

2030.

In 2012-13 India relied on upon outside crude oil to meet 84.5% of its

refinery prerequisite. Then again, as far as household consumption of

petroleum items, the reliance was essentially lower, at 77%, the

remaining import being gone for creation for fare markets.

Of the aggregate consumption of different sorts of petroleum items in

2012-13, high velocity diesel oil represented 43.98%. This was trailed

by Petrol (10.02%), LPG (9.93%) and Naphtha (7.82%).

From the table over the consumption of petroleum products in light

distillates in the year 2005-06other chemicals which comes the lowest

2365 tons and highest consumption of petroleum products in LPG as

10456 tons, and in the year 2012-13 the consumption of petroleum

93
products in lesser figures come 2660 tons and highest figure goes to

15744 tons, whereas the lowest percentage shows as 1.7 of LPG and

highest percentage shows as 15.3 percent of other chemicals.60

Table over the consumption of petroleum products in center distillates

in the year 2005-06other chemicals which comes 512 tonnesand

highest consumption of petroleum products in LPG as 40191 tons,

and in the year 2012-13 the consumption of petroleum products in

lesser figures come 399 tons and highest figure goes to 69174 tons,

though the lowest rate indicates as -7.3 percent of different chemicals

and higher substance goes to 6.8 percent.

The consumption of petroleum products in overwhelming closures in

the year 2005-06other waxes which comes 105 tonnesand highest

consumption of petroleum products in heater oil as 8921 tons, and in

the year 2012-13 the consumption of petroleum products in lesser

figures come 79 tons and highest figure goes to 2103 tons, while the

lowest rate demonstrates as -22.3 percent of LSHS and higher

petroleum coke goes to 62.1 percent. The general rate in lowest come

1.4 and highest rate goes to 6.7.

60Chemin, Elodie Sentenac (2012), “Is the price effect of fuel consumption symmetric? Some evidence
from an empirical study”, Energy Policy, 41, 59-65.
94
Table-3.1: Product-wise Consumption of Petroleum Products 000’

tones @ growth.

With the Backdrop on the Energy and oil situation, and numerous

limits on the accessibility of the item, the petroleum marketing

organizations have focused in enhancing their market share and

perceivability through large portions of the focused endeavors on

building long-term relationships with the customer. Large portions of

the key elements have been referred to in the writing study towards

CRM activities and its linkage on business execution.

95
Indian Oil Corporation

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or Indian oil, is an Indian state-

claimed oil and gas corporation with its central command in New

Delhi, India. It is the world's 88th biggest corporation, as indicated by

the Fortune Global 500 rundown, and the biggest public corporation

in India when positioned by revenue.61

Indian oil and its subsidiaries represent a 49% share in the petroleum

products market, 31% share in refining limit and 67% downstream

part pipelines limit in India. The Indian oil Group of organizations

possesses and works 10 of India's 22 refineries with a joined refining

limit of 65.7 million metric tons for every year. In FY 2012 IOCL sold

75.66 million tons of petroleum products and reported a PBT of 37.54

billion, and the Government of India earned an extract obligation of

232.53 billion and duty of 10.68 billion.

The company is principally controlled by Government of India which

claims approx. 79% shares in the company.62 It is one of the seven

Maharatna status organizations of India, separated from Coal India

Limited, NTPC Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Steel

Authority of India Limited, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and Gas

Authority of India Limited.

61"Global 500".Fortune Global 500.Retrieved 31 Aug 2013.

62"Shareholding Pattern".Indian Oil. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
96
Indian oil started operations in 1958 as Indian Oil Company Ltd. The

Indian Oil Corporation was framed in 1964, with the merger of Indian

Refineries Ltd.

As of late Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has raised $500 million by offering 10-

year dollar-designated bonds, it’s fourth such issue abroad in the last

three and a half years.

The principle products of Indian Oil are petrol, diesel, LPG, auto LPG,

flying turbine fuel, ointments and petrochemicals: naphtha, bitumen,

lamp oil and so forth.

Indian Oil works the biggest and the greatest network of fuel stations

in the nation, numbering around 20,575 (16,350 general Ros & 4,225

Kisan Seva Kendra). It has likewise begun Auto LPG Dispensing

Stations (ALDS). It supplies Indane cooking gas to in excess of 66.8

million families through a network of 5,934 Indane merchants. The

principle services offered by Indian Oil are Refining, Marketing,

Pipelines, R&d and Training. Indian Oil's Research and Development

Center (R&d) at Faridabad supports, creates and gives the essential

innovation solutions to the working divisions of the corporation and

its customers inside the nation and abroad.

Indian Oil has extended its business to petrochemicals, common gas

marketing, oil investigation & generation and globalization of

downstream operations. It works through 150 regulatory work places

97
in India and three abroad. It controls 10 of India's 19 refineries and

accounts for around 40.4% share of national refining limit. The group

refining limit is about 60.2 MMT p.a. The company possesses and

works a broad network of unrefined petroleum and petroleum item

pipelines. Its pipelines network is about 9,300 km long and 61.72

MMT p.a. in limit. Indian Oil works 16,607 petrol/diesel stations,

including 1,422 Kisan Seva Kendra outlets for rustic customers, 6,873

mass purchaser outlets and 3,955 lamp oil merchants.

It works brands like Xtracare, Swagat and Kisan Seva Kendras in the

petroleum retail section and Indane LPG, SERVO Lubricants, Auto gas

LPG, Xtrapremium Branded Petrol, Xtramile Branded Diesel,

Xtrapower Fleet Card, Indian oil Aviation and Xtrarewards in the

energy section. It has established aptitude in the R&d section that

offers creative products, advances also services covering the whole

array of downstream operations. In Fy07, the company authorized a

few significant activities, including development of the limit of its

Panipat refinery from 6 to 12 MMT p.a., a world scale PX/PTA

(Paraxylene/Purified Terephthalic Acid) plant at Panipat for polyester

intermediates, MS (petrol) quality up gradation venture at its Gujarat

refinery, and the Mundra-Panipat raw petroleum pipeline with inland

offices at Mundra for taking care of substantial raw petroleum

imports.

98
Indian Oil has speculation arrangements of Rs 432.5 bn for the

following five years. By 2011-12, the Indian Oil Group, with 80 MMT

p.a. refining limit would develop as a fare arranged center for

completed products. The pipelines network, which gives vital logistics

preference to the marketing operations, is likewise situated to cross

the 10,000 km stamp soon.

In 1996 the Company felt a requirement for IT re-building as it

watched that throughout the years a few need based modules were

produced prompting production of islands of data which needed

reconciliation over the Company. Towards this the Company selected

M/s Price Waterhouse Associates (PWA) (April 1997) after limited

tendering as Consultants to the IT re-designing venture (Manthan).

The extent of the undertaking comprehensively included creating a

corporate IT procedure, definition of configuration parameters for

center mix of functional modules to be utilized at all the units of the

Company from Board room to the refineries and upcountry sales

business locales, creating the obliged system construction modeling,

determining the requirements for up gradation and expansion of

fittings and programming, incorporating the current modules and new

modules and institutionalization and usage of the incorporated system

over the Company. The task was to be completed in four stages,

specifically, Conceptualization and Design, Development and

debugging, Trial Implementation and Stabilization and

99
Standardization. The undertaking was to be finished in 29 months

(i.e. September 1999).

Under the undertaking, the Company, on the exhortation of the

Consultants, chose SAP/R3 along with the related oil and gas

particular programming IS-OIL and CIN as the ERP solution for

customization and usage over the Company, incorporating important

functions such as Finance and Controlling, Human Resources,

Production Planning, Sale and Distribution, Material Management,

Plant Maintenance, Project System and Quality Management. This

was to be supplemented with ‘add-ons’ i.e. additional software

solutions, which could be seamlessly integrated into the ERP

environment. The ‘add-ons’ addressed vital functions such as demand

forecasting, distribution planning, crude selection and refinery

planning.

The Company had implemented (March 2004) SAP/R3 at 292 out of

530 sites scheduled to be completed by September 2002 (as per the

initial targets) at a cost of Rs.182 crore (against the initial estimate of

Rs.95.95 crore including hardware software and consultancy).

Indian Oil aspires to be Asia’s leading commercial R&D organisation

in the downstream hydrocarbon sector by building on its capabilities

in developing innovative technologies, products and processes, and

nodal research in alternative fuels. Beyond core businesses, Indian Oil

100
is working to emerge as a major player in the petrochemicals business

by the year 2011-12, with two petrochemical hubs shaping up at

Panipat and Paradip. In natural gas business, it is attempting

quantum growth in LNG imports, infrastructure and marketing,

besides city gas distribution. In the high-risk business of oil

exploration & production, IndianOil’s consortium approach with

established players is paying off well in terms of exceptional

Government support and successful forays in India and abroad. Its

current interests are focussed on oil equity and sourcing of natural

gas, predominantly from African and CIS countries, by leveraging its

downstream capabilities to form joint venture partnerships with

reputed enterprises overseas IOC is India’s largest commercial

enterprise, ranking 135th on the Fortune Global 500 listing.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian state-

controlled oil and gas company headquartered in Mumbai,

Maharashtra. BPCL has been positioned 229th in the Fortune Global

500 rankings of the world's greatest corporations for the year 2013.

In 1889 amid incomprehensible modern improvement, an important

player in the South Asian market was the Burmah Oil Company.

Despite the fact that fused in Scotland in 1886, the company

developed out of the endeavors of the Chef Rohit Oil Company, which

101
had been shaped in 1871 to refine unrefined petroleum delivered from

primitive hand dug wells in Upper Burma.

In 1928, Asiatic Petroleum Company (India) began cooperation with

Burma oil company. This partnership prompted the development of

Burmah-Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Company of India Limited.

Burmah Shell started its operations with import and marketing of

Kerosene.

On 24 January 1976, the Burmah Shell was assumed control by the

Government of India to structure Bharat Refineries Limited. On 1

August 1977, it was renamed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

It was additionally the first refinery to process recently discovered

indigenous rough Bombay High.

In 2003, following an appeal by the Center for Public Interest

Litigation, the Supreme Court limited the Central government from

privatizing Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum without the

endorsement of Parliament.63[3] As direction for the CPIL, Rajinder

Sachar and Prashant Bhushan said that the best way to disinvest in

the organizations would be to annulment or revise the Acts by which

they were nationalized in the 1970s.

63SAMANWAYA RAUTRAY AND PHEROZE L. VINCENT (March 4, 2011)."Feather in cap for graft
fighters".The Telegraph.Retrieved 2012-04-26.
102
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited

HPCL is a Government of India Enterprise with a Navratna Status,

and a Fortune 500 and Forbes 2000 company, with an annual

turnover of Rs. 1,90,048 Crores and sales/income from operations of

Rs 2,15,675 Crores (US$ 39.726 Billions) during FY 2012-13, having

about 20% Marketing share in India among PSUs and a strong market

infrastructure. HPCL's Crude Thruput and Market Sales (including

exports) are 15.78 Million Metric Tons (MMT) and 30.32 MMT

respectively in the same period. HPCL operates 2 major refineries

producing a wide variety of petroleum fuels & specialties, one

in Mumbai (West Coast) of 6.5 Million Metric Tones Per

Annum (MMTPA) capacity and the other in Vishakhapatnam, (East

Coast) with a capacity of 8.3 MMTPA. HPCL holds an equity stake of

16.95% in Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited, a state-of-

the-art refinery at Mangalore with a capacity of 15 MMTPA.

Kochi Refineries Limited

Kochi Refinery, a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited

(BPCL-KR), is a9.5 MMTPA Refinery located at Ambalamugal in

Ernakulam District (Kerala), India. The Refinery was commissioned in

1966 with crude oil processing capacity of 2.5 Million Metric Tons per

Annum (MMTPA). Through progressive revamps and addition of

103
process units, the refining capacity has been augmented to present

level of 9.5 MMTPA, incorporating advanced refining technologies.

During 2008-09, the refinery set out on bottoms up gradation project

and Environment clearance obtained for the project in Feb 2009.

Subsequently, in view of the high demand growth of petroleum

products projected in the coming years in the country and also to

retain its profitability and competitiveness in the long run, BPCL-KR

decided to carry out a Configuration Study and prepare a Prefeasibility

report (PFR) for an Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) with

the help of Engineers India Limited (EIL) as Consultant. In addition to

enhancement of refining capacity to 15.5 MMTPA, quality up

gradation of autofuelsto Euro-IV/ V norms and up gradation of

refinery residue to value added products are envisaged as part of the

project.

The capacity expansion by 6.0 MMTPA will be facilitated by installing

a new state of the art Crude distillation Unit of 10.5 MMTPA so as to

replace the existing old4.5 MMTPA CDU-1 which is not energy

efficient. Associated process units like Delayed Coker Unit, FCCU,

VGO HT, DHT Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU), Hydrogen Generation Unit

(HGU), Sour Water Stripper etc are included in the project.

Propylene based downstream units are proposed in the configuration

for utilizing the Propylene generated from FCC.

104
The feed to the Delayed Coker Unit is Vaccum Residue (VR) from

Vaccum columns of all Crude Distillation units. Coker feed is

successively preheated against product/ pump around stream and

then flows into the bottom of the Cokerfractionator. The feed is joined

by the bottom liquid of the fractionator’s i.e recycle oil. The combined

Coker feed and heavy recycle liquid are pumped from

Cokerfractionator to Coker heaters. The prime function of the heaters

is to quickly heatthe feed to the required reaction temperature while

avoiding premature cokeformation in the heater tubes. Heated liquid

is fed to the coke drum, the hot feedcracks to form coke and cracked

products. The cracked products leave from the top of the coke drum

as a vapour stream to Coker fractionators. The Cokerfractionator

separates the coke drum effluent vapour into Coker Gas,

LPG,Naphtha, Light Coker Gas Oil (LCGO), Heavy Coker Gas Oil

(HCGO) and Coker Fuel Oil. Coker Gas is sent to Fuel Gas treatment

unit and finally to the Fuel Gasheader for use as internal fuel. LPG is

sent to storage after treatment. CokerNaphtha, HCGO and Coker

Diesel are sent to VGO-HT/DHT for treatment. Coke is transferred to

Coke yard for sale.

Assam Oil Division (Under IOC)

Assam Oil Company Ltd. (AOC) was one of the earliest enterprises in

the world engaged in exploration and production of oil. Oil was

discovered in Digboi in northeastern part of Assam in 1889 by Assam

105
Railway & Trading Company (Originally formed with the object of

drilling for oil, later on Assam Oil Company was created to carry out

exploration work in Assam and adjoining areas), which established the

predecessor company to AOC that was later acquired by Burmah Oil

Company Ltd.(BOC), founded 1896, which played a major role in the

oil industry in South Asia for about a century through its subsidiaries

and in discovery of oil in the middle east though its significant interest

in British Petroleum, and also discovered Yenangyaung Oil Field in

1897 and, in 1901, discovered Chauk (Singu) Oil Field, both in

Myanmar. Assam Oil Company was taken over by the BOC in 1910,

and between 1910 and 1930, the BOC carried out extensive

exploration work in Assam and adjoining areas. In 1937, BOC, Royal

Dutch/Shell, and Anglo Iranian Oil Co applied for exploration licensee

in India and started geophysical survey. Due to World War II, all

activities were suspended. Assam Oil is now a division of Indian Oil.

under the banner of Assam oil Division (AOD) and is the marketing

arm of IOC in the North East India.

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (Company) was established in

the year 1965.The Company has two refineries one at Manali with a

refining capacity of 9.5 MillionMetric Tones Per Annum (MMTPA) and

another in Cauvery Basin at Nagapattinamwith a capacity of one

MMTPA. The main products of the Company are LiquefiedPetroleum

106
Gas, Motor Sprit, Superior Kerosene, Aviation Turbine Fuel, High

Speed Diesel, Naphtha, Bitumen, Lube Base Stocks, Paraffin Wax,

Fuel Oil, Hexane and Petrochemical feed stocks.

The Company introduced VAX (Virtual Address Extension) system in

the early 1990susing programmes developed in house which were

independent and not integrated. Hence the Company proposed to

integrate these systems using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

The RAMCO e Applications system was selected on the advice of CMC

Limited and implemented during June 2002 at a total cost of Rs.3.77

crore. RAMCO eApplications system uses client server architecture

with MS-SQL 2000 as database and Windows 2000 as Operating

System.

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL), formerly known as

Madras Refineries Limited (MRL) was formed as a joint venture in

1965 between the Government of India (GOI), AMOCO and National

Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) having a share holding in the ratio 74%:

13%: 13% respectively. Originally ,CPCL Refinery was set up with an

installed capacity of 2.5 Million Tons Per Annum (MMTPA) in a record

time of 27 months at a cost of Rs. 43 crore without any time or cost

overrun. In 1985, AMOCO disinvested in favour of GOI and the

shareholding percentage of GOI and NIOC stood revised at 84.62%

and 15.38% respectively. Later GOI disinvested 16.92% of the paid up

capital in favor of Unit Trust of India, Mutual Funds, Insurance

107
Companies and Banks on 19th May 1992, thereby reducing its

holding to 67.7 %. The public issue of CPCL shares at a premium of

Rs. 70 (Rs. 90 to FIIs) in 1994 was oversubscribed to an extent of 38

times and added a large shareholder base. As a part of the

restructuring steps taken up by the Government of India, Indian Oil

acquired equity from GOI in 2000-01. In July 2003, NIOC transferred

their entire shareholding to Naftiran Intertrade Company Limited, an

affiliate, in line with the Formation Agreement, as part of their

organizational restructuring. Currently IOC holds 51.89% while NICO

holds 15.40%.CPCL has two refineries with a combined refining

capacity of 11.5 Million Tons Per Annum (MMTPA). The Manali

Refinery has a capacity of 10.5 MMTPA and is one of the most

complex refineries in India with Fuel, Lube, Wax and Petrochemical

feedstocks production facilities. CPCL's second refinery is located at

Cauvery Basin at Nagapattinam. This unit was set up in

Nagapattinam with a capacity of 0.5 MMTPA in 1993 and later

enhanced to 1.0 MMTPA.The main products of the company are LPG,

Motor Spirit, and Superior Kerosene, Aviation Turbine Fuel, High

Speed Diesel, Naphtha, Bitumen, Lube Base Stocks, Paraffin Wax,

Fuel Oil, Hexane and Petrochemical feed stocks. The Wax Plant at

CPCL has an installed capacity of 30,000 tons per annum, which is

designed to produce paraffin wax for manufacture of candle wax,

waterproof formulations and match wax. A Propylene Plant with a

capacity of 17,000 tons per annum was commissioned in 1988 to

108
supply petrochemical feedstock to neighbouring downstream

industries. The unit was revamped to enhance the propylene

production capacity to 30,000 tons per annum in 2004. CPCL also

supplies LABFS to a downstream unit for manufacture of Liner Alkyl

Benzene. The crude throughput for the year 2012-2013 was 9.742

million metric tons (MMT). The company’s turnover for the year 2012-

13 was Rs.46842.47 cores and the Profit after Tax was (Rs.1766.84

crores)

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC)

Founded on August 14, 1956, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

Limited (ONGC) is the largest Indian public sector company. It is also

the second largest Indian company in terms of net profit and the third

largest Indian company by market capitalization.

The Government of India has vested ONGC with the responsibility to

plan, promote, organize and implement programs for development of

petroleum resources as well as the production and sale of petroleum

and its products within India. Consequently, it is involved in exploring

and exploiting hydrocarbons in 26 sedimentary basins within the

country. The most important contribution of ONGC, however, has

been its pioneering role in developing the nation’s capabilities in

exploration and production activities, at a globally competitive level.

109
Due to these capabilities, ONGC currently produces ~80% of India’s

crude oil production. It owns and operates more than 11,000

kilometers of pipelines in India and owns other assets across the

hydrocarbon value chain in India, and through its joint venture

company, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), abroad as well.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited is an

Indian multinational oil and gas company headquartered

in Dehradun, India. It is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of

the Government of India, under the administrative control of

the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP&NG). It is India's

largest oil and gas exploration and production company. It produces

around 69% of India's crude oil (equivalent to around 30% of the

country's total demand) and around 62% of its natural gas. On 31

March 2013, its market capitalization was INR 2.6 trillion (US$

48.98 billion), making it India's second largest publicly traded

company. In a government survey for FY 2011-12, it was ranked as

the largest profit making PSU in India. ONGC has been ranked 357th

in the Fortune Global 500list of the world's biggest corporations for

the year 2012. It is ranked 22nd among the Top 250 Global Energy

Companies by Platts.

ONGC was founded on 14 August 1956 by Government of India,

which currently holds a 69.23% equity stake. It is involved in

exploring for and exploiting hydrocarbons in 26 sedimentary basins of

110
India, and owns and operates over 11,000 kilometers of pipelines in

the country. Its international subsidiary ONGC Videsh currently has

projects in 15 countries. ONGC has discovered 6 of the 7

commercially-producing Indian Basins, in the last 50 years, adding

over 7.1 billion tonnes of In-place Oil & Gas volume of hydrocarbons

in Indian basins. Against a global decline of production from matured

fields, ONGC has maintained production from its brownfields like

Mumbai High, with the help of aggressive investments in various IOR

(Improved Oil Recovery) and EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) schemes.

ONGC has many matured fields with a current recovery factor of 25-

33%. Its Reserve Replacement Ratio for between 2005 and 2013 has

been more than one. During FY 2012-13, ONGC had to share the

highest ever under-recovery of INR 494.2 million (an increase of INR

49.6 billion over the previous financial year) towards the under-

recoveries of Oil Marketing Companies (IOC, BPCL and HPCL).

Oil India Limited

The story of Oil India Limited (OIL) follows and symbolizes the

advancement and development of the Indian petroleum industry.

From the disclosure of crude oil in the most distant east of India at

Digboi, Assam in 1889 to its available status as a completely

coordinated upstream petroleum company, OIL has come far,

intersection numerous breakthroughs.

111
On February 18, 1959, Oil India Private Limited was consolidated to

grow and create the newfound oil fields of Naharkatiya and Moran in

the Indian North East. In 1961, it turned into a joint wander company

between the Indian Government and Burmah Oil Company Limited,

UK.

In 1981, OIL turned into a completely claimed Government of India

venture. Today, OIL is a head Indian National Oil Company occupied

with the business of investigation, improvement and generation of

crude oil and characteristic gas, transportation of crude oil and

creation of LPG. OIL additionally gives different E&p related services

and holds 26% value in Numaligarh Refinery Limited.

The Authorized share capital of the Company is Rs. 2000 Crores. The

Issued, Subscribed and Paid share capital of the company is Rs.

601.14 Crores. At present, The Government of India, the Promoter of

the Company is holding 67.64% of the aggregate Issued & Paid-up

Capital of the Company. The equalization 32.36% of the Equity capital

is held by Public and others including Bodies Corporate, Mutual

Funds, Banks, Fiis, Resident Individuals and so on.

Oil India Ltd. (OIL) has been assuming an important part to meet the

energy prerequisites of the nation. The climbing populace and the

subsequent increment in requests of petroleum products have put a

ton of weight on OIL. Notwithstanding the best exertion of different

112
petroleum organizations and OIL, the nation needs to import oil from

the universal market. The Government of India gives attention for the

investigation action.

At present, India's interest for petroleum products is developing at a

quick rate and it would achieve a level of 155 MMT by 2006-2007.

With a perspective to take care of this developing demand, the

investigation activities are quickened ashore and in addition in

profound waters. Considering the current request and supply, the

level of independence is prone to decrease to around 30% through the

following few years. Along these lines, considerable endeavors are

required to help the level of investigation movement so new finds can

be made and the generation of crude oil & gas can be essentially

brought up in the years to come.

Oil India Limited (OIL) is the second largest hydrocarbon exploration

& production (E&P) Indian public sector company and operational

headquarters in Duliajan, Assam, India under

the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural

Gas of the Government of India. However, Company's corporate office

located in Noida in New-Delhi-NCR region.OIL is engaged in the

business of exploration, development and production of crude oil and

natural gas, transportation of crude oil and production of liquid

petroleum gas. The story of Oil India Limited (OIL) traces and

symbolises the development and growth of the Indian petroleum

113
industry. From the discovery of crude oil in the far east of India at

Digboi, Assam in 1889 to its present status as a fully integrated

upstream petroleum company, OIL has come far, crossing many

milestones. The Company presently produces over 3.6-

3.8 MMTPA (million tons per annum) of crude oil, over 7MMSCMD of

Natural Gas and over 50,000 Tones of LPG annually. Most of this

emanates from its traditionally rich oil and gas fields concentrated in

the Northeastern part of India and contribute around 80% of total Oil

Gas produced in the region.

The company has over 100,000 square kilometers of license areas for

oil and gas exploration. It has emerged as a consistently profitable

International company and present in Libya, Gabon,Nigeria, Sudan,

Venezuela, Mozambique, Yemen, Iran, Bangladesh and USA. OIL has

recently emerged in the offshore giant gas-field project of Mozambique

and also made discovery of oil & gasin Gabon as an Operator and

Libya as non-operator. OIL acquired Shale oil asset in USA during

2012. In recent years, OIL has stepped up E & P activities significantly

in the North-East India. OIL has set up the NEF (North East Frontier)

project to intensify its exploration activities in the frontier areas in

North East, which are logistically very difficult and geologically

complex. Presently, exploration activities are in progress along the

Trust Belt areas of Arunachal, Assam including Mizoram. The

Company operates a crude oil pipeline in the North East for

transportation of crude oil produced by both OIL and ONGCL in the

114
region to feed Numaligarh, Guwahati, Bongaigaon and Barauni

refineries and a branch line to feed Digboi refinery.

3.3 INDUSTRY STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENTS

Maybe no other sector of Indian economy was such a great amount of

ignored amid the British administration as oil. It was widely accepted

that with the exception of Digboi in Assam, there was no oil

somewhere else in India. Indeed Digboi stayed ignored till 1921 when

Burmah Shell turned into its holder. The principal refinery was

constructed by the Assam Railway and Trading Organization in 1883

at Margherita. After the revelation of oil in the Digboi field, another

refinery was authorized in 1901 and the first lamp fuel from it was

advertised in December 1901. On the marketing side the Asiatic

Petroleum Company entered the Indian showcase in 1903 and later in

1921 the Burmah Oil Company (BOC) began marketing in India. The

Burniah Shell Company which was structured in January 1928

furthermore the Standard Vacuum Oil organization (SVOC) which

started its operations in September 1933 manufactured broad

systems of appropriation offices all through India.

Esso came to India on March 31, 1962 when the SVOC was

rearranged and named Esso Standard Eastern India, completely

claimed by the Standard Oil Company (New Pullover). The other real

marketing companies were the Caltex Company (mutually claimed

115
subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of California and Texas Oil

Company), the BOC (India Trading) Ltd, the recent working solely in

Assam and later known as the Assam Oil Company (AOC).' Thus the

whole oil industry in India was under the control of one or the other

major universal organization. This was the position in the whole non-

Communist world, where seven companies known as the "Seven

Sisters" ruled the oil industry. These companies, additionally alluded

to as the universal majors, were the five US titans, Exxon, Gulf,

Texaco, Mobil and Socal (Standard Oil of California, later renamed

Chevron), one British organization (British Petroleum) and one

Somewhat English Dutch organization (Royal Dutchishell).

On the eve of autonomy, India's interest for petroleum items was to

the tune of around 2.2 million metric tons (mmt), of which

approximately 0.2 mmt were created in the nation and the parity was

foreign made. In 1947 the creation of crude was 2,51,100 tones. For

quite a while considerably after Independence, the Government of

India took no genuine enthusiasm toward oil investigation. Some way

or another, the organizers had almost no confidence in the plausibility

of a significant oil revelation and the beginning country's specialized

ability was considered insufficient to attempt any investigation. More

consideration was accordingly given to refineries where there was no

danger component.

116
The parity of installments issue, the developing level of oil

consumption and the requirement for independence in the major

petroleum items amid the years after the Second World War made the

Government to allot a huge part to refinery development in the

national economic plan. Table 3.2 which uncovers a sensibly steady

reserves1 generation proportion through the years is a record of

ONGC's exertions to match the pace of investigation with the

expanding creation and consumption. There has been a noteworthy

growth of the recoverable stores of both crude oil and natural gas,

especially after 'he disclosure of Bombay High. Despite the fact that

generation has additionally been relentlessly on the ascent, the holds

1 generation degree has stayed pretty much consistent around 25 due

to the disclosure of new saves. The physical criticalness of the

proportion lies in the way that in the event that creation proceeds at

the current level and no more holds are found, the current stores will

keep going just for 25 years. The requirement for quickened

investigation can't be overemphasized.

117
Table 3.2: Reserves and Production of Crude Oil and Natural Gas.

The Oil Industry Planning Group set up in 1994 under the

Chairmanship of U.sundararajan, Chairman and Managing Director,

BPCL assessed that the current refining limit deficit of 9.8 mmt would

increment to 12.5 mmt by 2006-7. It was anticipated that the interest

for POL items would be 124.1 mmt versus the present level of 64 mmt.

The venture needed to create the foundation for taking care of this

volume of items is in the scope of Rs.42,000 crores to Rs.58,000

crores.

As indicated by the Committee gauges, in 2006-7, the aggregate

refining limit would be 11 1.6 mmt, embodying 67.3 mmt in the public

118
sector, 27.6 mmt in the joint sector furthermore 16.7 mmt in the

private sector.

Expecting that the proportion of oil imports to aggregate fare income

proceed to stay at around 32 for every penny and the cost of oil in the

global business would not be higher than $22 for every barrel by the

year 2010 1, India's POL import bill is likely to achieve a level 3 or 4

times the present level, contingent upon which of the different

projections of interest works out. Separated from the equalization of

installments issue, this will make the nation more powerless against

sudden treks in oil costs.64

3.4 DEREGULATION IN THE PETROLEUM SECTOR IN INDIA

The late moves of the legislature to slowly deregulate the Petroleum,

Oil and Lubricants (POL) sector in India as a component of the plan of

'neo-liberal change' has created discontent among the individuals. In

the run-up to finish deregulation, there are examples of expansion in

the household cost of POL items that are proportionately more than

the ascent in their worldwide costs. In the latest occurrence (of

thirteenth September, 2012), the diesel cost was raised by Rs.5 for

every liter at one go, even without any ascent in worldwide costs.

These steps are continuously taken to dispense with the legislature

subsidy on these items in an orderly way. Deregulation of the POL

64Parikh, Jyoti., Purohit, Pallav. And Maitra, Pallavi., (2007), “Demand projections of petroleum

products and natural gas in India”, Energy, 32, 1827-1837.

119
sector is certain to dispense with the direct or indirect subsidies

totally. Furthermore diminishment in subsidy, as indicated by the

legislature, is the need of great importance keeping in mind the end

goal to diminish the fiscal deficit as extent to GDP65.

Deregulation is likewise required in the current neo nature's domain

since if the administration continues financing the public sector

possessed oil marketing companies (Omcs) like Indian Oil, Hindustan

Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, then the privately owned businesses

like Reliance and others would not get a 'level playing field' and they

would not have the capacity to contend in cost. Thusly, the present

subsidy administration indirectly limits the private players from

entering the oil marketing sector. Consequently, if the needs of the

administration in force are the lessening of subsidies and

guaranteeing a 'level playing field' for private players as opposed to

containing swelling and producing occupation and development, it

would pick a policy of deregulation.

"A business sector decided pricing framework for petrol and diesel

could be managed in the long-run by giving level playing field and

advertising rivalry among all players, public furthermore private, in

the oil and gas sector" (Kirit Parikh Committee Report, 2010). Before

taking a position either in support or against the value trek and

subsidy decrease, which would inevitably lead to the deregulation of

65Bhanumurthy, N.R., Surajit Das & Sukanya Bose, (2012) “Oil Price Shock, Pass-through Policy

and its Impact on India” NIPFP working paper No. 2012-99, March.
120
the whole POL sector in India, it would be valuable to look at some

essential truths about this sector with the assistance of statistics gave

by different wellsprings of the government.

The aggregate yearly sales of all POL items by the industry in India

has been evaluated to be roughly 1480 lakh metric ton amid economic

year 2011-12. All out crude oil handled by refineries possessed by

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum

Corporation Limited (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited

(BPCL), Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL), Oil and

Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)

and Essar Oil Limited (EOL) was 2037.5 lakh metric ton amid 2011-

12.

The aggregate import of crude was 1717 lakh metric ton and aggregate

imports including some petro-item imports was 1867 lakh metric ton.

The fare of petro-items was 608 lakh metric ton, making net imports

give or take 1260 lakh metric ton amid last money related year. In this

manner, treating the yearly industry sales of 1480 metric ton to be a

substitute for household ingestion, it develops that more than 85% of

residential consumption in India is met by net import of POL items

and just 15% is created locally. In worth (rupee) terms, on a normal,

POL imports constitute 17% of aggregate import in India. India's

import interest of crude constitutes just about 9% of World

export/import of crude.

121
Vigorously oil importing nations like India would naturally be helpless

against developments in the worldwide cost of crude oil (see the

diagram beneath). The normal universal cost of the bushel of crudes

foreign by India expanded steeply from Us$26.65/bbl in 2002-03 to

Us$83.57/bbl by 2008-09. It mollified a bit to Us$69.76/bbl in 2009-

10 however went up again to Us$85/bbl in 2010-11 and to a high of

Us$112/bbl amid 2011-12 (yearly normal). This postures a genuine

test to macroeconomic steadiness. The conversion standard has

additionally deteriorated subsequent to 2007-08 to a normal of

Rs.48/Us$ on a normal amid 2011-12. Generally, a generous bit of

any universal oil value stun was consumed by the legislature and not

passed on to the consumers as a result of its inflationary results and

in addition unfavorable impacts on development.

As the Chaturvedi board of trustees (2012) exceptional, regarding Us$,

the global cost of the Indian crate of POL imports went up by 3.5

times between December 2003 and June 2008; though, the residential

costs of engine soul and high velocity diesel (HSD) in India went up by

just 1.5 times amid this period. The administration chooses the

business value and remunerates the oil marketing companies for the

deficit from the import equality cost i.e. the distinction between the

governments administered selling cost and the global cost paid if the

completed POL items had been transported in directly. In spite of the

fact that, the import equality cost could be higher than the cost

warranted by the expanded expenses of transported in crude and is in

122
this manner a "notional" substitute, if the legislature does not

remunerate them anon this premise, the oil marketing companies

would incline toward trading their POL items instead of selling them

in the household market at much lower costs.66

This crevice between the local cost and the import equality value (or

fare or exchange equality cost) of POL items duplicated by the units

sold in the household business sector constitutes the downright

'under recuperation'. Some piece of the under recuperations are

ingested by the public sector (upstream also downstream) companies

and the rest is financed by the legislature through government

ensured oil-bonds and direct oil subsidies. Then again, the Central

government forces extract also custom duties on oil and the state

governments force sales tax on petro-items, which are reflected in the

last cost of these items and help significantly (around 20% of Focus'

and 10% of States' aggregate revenue) into the administration

exchequer.

Fig 3.3: Movements in International Price of Crude Oil.

66Chaturvedi Committee Report, (2008) “Report of the High-Powered Committee on Financial Position of
the Oil Companies”, Govt. of India.
123
It is imperative to note here that while the figuring of under

recuperation is focused around notional import equality costs, some

piece of the under recuperation is additionally assimilated by the

upstream and downstream companies and does not get reflected in

either the subsidy bills of the administration or in an increment in the

supply of oil-bonds. Beyond any doubt the oil subsidy is given

singularly by the focal government. Be that as it may, 60% of the

aggregate revenues receipt from this sector likewise comes to focal

exchequer and the states get short of what 40%. The aggregate

subsidy does not cross 35% of revenue receipts of the focal

government from POL.

Yet, whether any additional subsidy would offer ascent to an

increment in fiscal deficit or not would rely on upon whether the

ascent in use is bigger than the increment in revenue or not. In 2009-

10 and 2010-11, the increments in subsidies have been much lower

than the contemporaneous increments in the commitment of the POL

sector to both the joined exchequer and also the focal exchequer. In

the event that we take a gander at the financing of the aggregate

under recuperation, we see that the rebates given by the upstream

companies secured 30-40% of add up to under recuperation. Prior,

the trouble of whatever remains of the under recuperation used to be

124
borne by the Omcs, yet that commitment has been continuously cut

down to an unimportant 10%.67

67Economic Division, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (2012), “Basic Statistics on Indian

Petroleum & Natural Gas 2010-11”

125
 CHAPTER - 4

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF

PETROLEUM INDUSTRY

4.1: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT FOR ENERGY

INDUSTRY

While it is comprehended that overseeing customer relationships

obliges a mixture of approaches, the technology to drive customized

connections through knowing and understanding your customers has

just as of late developed enough to meet the requests of the energy

industry. Today, CRM can have a stamped effect in fostering more

beneficial and additionally fulfilling customer relationships. By picking

CRM to address present and future customer relationship needs,

forward-looking utility companies are planning to work in deregulated

energy markets. CRM results concentrate on front-office business

issues utilizing the most recent innovations to coordinate data from

divergent systems all through the whole energy undertaking. By

leveraging venture wide data, energy organizations are benefitting

from decreased adjusting expenses, focused on marketing battles, and

enhanced sales.

"Genuine CRM involves managing customers exclusively or as one of a

kind groups, and includes coordinating all systems that touch the

126
customer, from charging to the call focus to sales and marketing."

While there is some union in the middle of CIS and CRM, CRM stays

unique in light of the fact that it:

 Focuses on front-office connections while coordinating with back-

office transactions.

 Automates and oversees marketing, sales, and administration

capacities.

 Optimizes customer connections crosswise over numerous

channels.

 Uses venture wide data for examination of customer and channel

benefit.

 Expands the meaning of customer to incorporate prospects.

Obviously, organizations can develop and adjust customer data

systems to give more customer-driven usefulness, however custom

software development is lavish and prolonged. Instead of supplanting

existing CIS, CRM is an alluring supplement that can improve your

present and future technology speculations. To guarantee quick

execution, heading CRM sellers give extensible schemas that

incorporate business methodologies and data from over the front-and

back-office with next to zero customization. This blend of CRM also

127
CIS guarantees that energy companies can influence all customer data

for an extensive and predictable methodology to marketing, sales, and

administration.

As a direct aftereffect of deregulation, numerous energy companies are

securing or strengthening their marketing offices to instruct customer

and business customers about their services and offerings. CRM can

expand the adequacy of these new marketing activities through

customized marketing abilities. By looking over the abundance of

customer data you have, CRM systems can segment customers by

sort, use examples, administration history, buy history, and more.

Instead of covering a customer base with bland messages and offers,

watchful segmentation can enhance communications adequacy by

guaranteeing that important messages are arriving at proper crowds.

Marketing computerization tools can help you start and oversee

multichannel, multiwave fights, for example, a direct mail piece that

highlights new regulations, bill additions offering new electrical items,

associate advertising encased with the receipt pushing packages or

occasions, and emails showcasing internet charging alternatives.

Through CRM examination, marketing supervisors can screen the

battle's general adequacy and make ongoing changes, for example,

leveraging lower-cost channels for failing to meet expectations

crusades or broadening exercises for battles that are surpassing

128
desires. By shutting the crevice between crusade execution and

crusade investigation, advertisers can modify their offers, messages,

and communications progressively.

The deciding result: extended piece of the overall industry, expanded

customer maintenance, what's more enhanced net revenues.

As per the report cited in the BRICS*, India shall be the leading

economic power in the world in another 20 years because of the

human index. Therefore, the humans or the customers shall hold the

future of any company. In the energy sector, our focus and our efforts

shall be restricted to the field of petroleum for this research activity.

The changing global energy market and regulatory environment have

focused a harsh spotlight on operational risks, health, safety, security

and environment (HSSE). Successful energy companies need to stay

ahead of industry trends and be able to respond to legislative and

market changes quickly and efficiently.

Energy and utility sector is relying on information technology

solutions like never before to solve some of the business challenges.

Specifically, CRM technology has a special meaning for utility and

energy companies which often operate under tightly regulated

monopolies and cater to clients who have very limited options in terms

of providers. Utility companies have long made CRM as part of their

business strategies, and technology has recently advanced to the point

129
where they can power up customer relations through analytics and

tighter integration between infrastructure systems, customer data,

emergency preparedness, energy distribution and consumption,

energy trading, compliance and incident management etc

CRM has become business critical application because it's the

underlying premise of the new delivery model that utility companies

are leveraging. Many utility companies are looking at back-end

database integration solutions that link collected data with customer

information and service requests. "If you look at the number of devices

and the amount of data these companies are taking in -- both from a

technical and customer side of things, such as electric meters,

transformers, and customer data from a CRM system -- this is a huge

asset that utility companies are trying to leverage to make better

informed business decisions and gain competitive advantage.

Utility & Energy industry needs a robust business technology solution

to address some of these challenges:

 Help build customer loyalty by delivering consistent, high-level

customer service across all channels.

 Identify high-value clients and take advantage of new revenue

opportunities.

 Utilities and Energy companies need strong integration between

mature CRM systems and billing applications. There are no

130
 standard integration objects available leading to bespoke

application development.

 Traditionally, the Utility companies have operated with disparate

customer care and billing applications. These applications support

minimal CRM functionalities. Consequently, they do not provide a

holistic, integrated customer view.

 Maintaining and growing the energy supplies to provide access and

meet future demand with a reduced environmental impact will

require substantial long-term investments

 Develop organization-wide CRM infrastructure for lead

management, claims management, sales management, customer

data management and Partner Relationship Management (PRM)

 Need for segmenting customers for collections, service calls, and

infrastructure monitoring to predict potential power failures.

 Ability to detect trouble spots and speeding the dispatch of work

crews

 Track case details, ensure the capture of faulty products and

resolution details, and enhance customer satisfaction

 Efficient inventory management system to capture all products, the

availability of quantity and quantity requested

 Efficient budgeting, claims and returns management system

 Efficient collaboration tool with other public service entities

 Provide centralized system for emergency preparedness, training

and servicing.

131
 Extend the value of IT investment by integrating with legacy core

systems and existing applications.

 Remove information silos with real time accurate business

information anytime on any device.

 Manual workflows across multiple departments

 Manage compliance and risk management

Our Energy Utilities and Services-CRM offerings include:

Experienced and competent resource pool drawn from leading

engineering and management schools and industry experts.

Complete range of service offerings, including business and technology

consulting, customer operations strategy, CRM road map definition,

package evaluation, implementations, upgrades, rollouts, support and

maintenance.

Industry vertical-specific competency team developing pre-built

solutions, frameworks, methodologies and templates that can reduce

the project execution costs by 15-20%. Proven excellence in Energy

Utility and Services including the successful execution of large and

business critical engagements in Utility & Energy sector.

In this fast-changing environment, successful energy companies need

to stay ahead of industry trends and be able to respond to legislative

and market changes quickly and efficiently. Whether you’re a new

132
entrant to the energy industry looking to attract customers and make

profits or an established one that needs to find ways to retain

customers, you need to be able to successfully compete in today’s

dynamic, open market.

The traditional model of state-owned energy companies continues to

be challenged. A combination of factors is leading governments to

conclude that utilities can be satisfactorily, and more efficiently,

delivered by wholly or partially private enterprises. This provides

access to new sources of capital and technical expertise and facilitates

faster market changes. Table 4.1 depicts the trends that are currently

affecting energy companies.

Whether state-owned or shareholder-focused, energy companies are

increasingly subject to the developing needs of their customers.

Consumers demand quality services at reasonable prices and are

increasingly offered more choices as to how they purchase public

services. This places even more pressure on energy companies to be

aware of and respond to market forces. It also means they must find

methods to better manage their revenue streams. The challenge that

competition creates is how to accommodate the increased complexity

of business processes while improving customer service and reducing

costs.68

68AWhite Paper on the Trends in Electricity and Other Utility Industries, Utilities Domain Competency
Group (DCG), March 2000.
133
 Table 4.1: Force and impact summary.

Beginning in 1978 with the passing of the Public Utilities Regulatory

Policy Act (PURPA) through today with the new Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission (FERC) proposal for standard market design

(SMD), deregulation initiatives have propelled the energy industry to

adapt to a more entrepreneurial, customer-centric style of business.

The base concept of SMD is free market pricing and open competition.

This new competitive environment is putting additional pressures on

expense control, internal integration, and business process efficiency.

Before a company can be ready to face deregulation, it has to:

134
 Understand the new market entities—mainly energy service

providers (ESP) and other service providers.

 Display/print these new entities in screens and reports.

 Build various interfaces with these new entities—bills, reads, and

so on.

 Add new business processes to support switching of suppliers and

revert to utility distribution company (UDC).

Apart from these, the utility usually defines its own scheme for the

new market.

These usually call for:

 Changes to bill engine and rate structure.

 Customer-focused approach to processes and transactions.

Deregulation and its inherent risk of customer churn are forcing the

energy industry to reevaluate the way they do business. “For energy

companies to remain competitive in a deregulated industry, they must

leverage customer touch points, broaden the CSR’s role via

technology, and create a panoramic customer view, enabling superior

customer account management and reducing costs.”3 To build

stronger customer relationships, leading energy companies are placing

new emphasis on understanding their customers and investigating

various customer interaction channels. As part of this customer-

centric evolution, energy companies are focusing their attention on

135
software platforms that foster closer customer relationships, enhance

customer service, and reduce costs.

What kinds of solutions should you consider to help you succeed in

today’s energy market? Many energy companies are evaluating various

options to address their customer management requirements such as

enhancements to their legacy systems, upgrades to their existing

customer information systems (CIS), or investment in customer

relationship management (CRM) solutions. Given those three choices,

what are the evaluation criteria you should use? When evaluating

these options, you should consider if the proposed solution:

 Streamlines customer service through multichannel interactions.

 Captures customer contact history, provides access to service order

status, and integrates with field service operations.

 Predicts customer behavior and facilitates targeted marketing

campaigns.

 Integrates tightly with billing and operational systems.

 Provides the flexibility to adapt to regulatory changes and evolving

business processes.

 Meets your short-term goals as well as your long-term strategies.

Ultimately, you need a solution that will enable you to manage costs,

understand your customers, and adapt to deregulation changes.

Before making your decision you should consider the tradeoffs

136
between solutions and the impact it will have on your business (see

Table 4.2).69

Table 4.2: Comparison of customer management systems.

While it is understood that managing customer relationships requires

a variety of approaches, the technology to drive personalized

interactions through knowing and understanding your customers has

only recently matured enough to meet the demands of the energy

69Turning Down the Heat on the Utility Call Center, Meta Group Research, January 17, 2002.
137
industry. Today, CRM can make a marked difference in fostering more

productive and more satisfying customer relationships.

According to Forrester Research, 25.6 percent of North American

utilities have completed a CRM deployment or have a rollout

underway.70 By choosing CRM to address current and future

customer relationship needs, forward-looking utility companies are

preparing to operate in deregulated energy markets. CRM solutions

focus on front-office business problems using the latest technologies

to integrate information from disparate systems throughout the entire

energy enterprise. By leveraging enterprise-wide data, energy

organizations are profiting from reduced servicing costs, targeted

marketing campaigns, and improved sales. “True CRMentails dealing

with customers individually or as unique groups, and involves

integrating all systems that touch the customer, from billing to the

call center to sales and marketing.”71 While there is some convergence

between CIS and CRM,CRM remains distinct because it:

 Focuses on front-office interactions while integrating with back-

office transactions.

 Automates and manages marketing, sales, and service functions.

 Optimizes customer interactions across multiple channels.

 Uses enterprise-wide data for analysis of customer and channel

profitability.

70CRM Profile: Deployment Across Industries, Forrester Report, July 2002.

71Smith, L. Dennis. Where the Upgrades Are, Energy Customer Management, May/June 2002.
138
 Expands the definition of customer to include prospects.

Of course, organizations can extend and adapt customer information

systems to provide more customer-centric functionality, but custom

software development is expensive and time-consuming. Rather than

replacing existing CIS, CRM is an attractive complement that can

enhance your current and future technology investments. To ensure

fast implementation, leading CRM vendors provide extensible

frameworks that integrate business processes and data from across

the front-and back-office with little or no customization. This

combination of CRM and CIS ensures that energy companies can

leverage all customer information for a comprehensive and consistent

approach to marketing, sales, and service.

As competition in the energy market increases, leading utilities are

looking to improve customer service as a proactive means to avoid

more stringent regulations. Contact center technologies like email

response management systems (ERMS),interactive web chat, internet

self-service, computer telephony integration (CTI),interactive voice

response (IVR), automatic call distribution (ACD), and so on help

improve your customer interactions while reducing support costs.

Since deregulation has caused increased competition and territory

encroachment by new players, utilities need to consider technology as

a business strategy for success.

139
While legacy systems limit the ability for service agents to react

quickly or to access real-time customer information, CRM lets you

deliver a higher level of service by infusing customer interactions with

a comprehensive view of each consumer or commercial customer.

In addition to providing high-quality service, representatives can react

more intelligently when interacting with customers. “For utility

companies to remain competitive in a deregulated energy industry,

they must evolve their call centers from complaint departments to

customer interaction centers.” For example, during a customer

interaction, customer service representatives can exploit opportunities

surfaced by the CRM systems to suggest a better rate plan based on

monthly usage patterns, win over likely churn candidates, or arrange

the best payment options.

In petroleum sector, India is also showing early signs of aligning with

global trends in petro-retailing with forces working as depicted in fig

4.1. The market is becoming dynamic because of the changing need

and expectations of the customers and entry of new players. Moreover,

as per the global trend, the market is slowly moving towards

increasing revenue from non-fuel related and further intensifying the

competition within the companies to garner maximum market share.

140
Fig 4.1: Factors Impacting the Change in Petro-Retailing

4.2 PSU PETROLEUM MARKET: THE CRM PURSUITS

Since beginning, the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSES) have

been the backbone of the Indian economy and were situated up with

the order to i) serve the expansive macro-economic targets of higher

economic development, ii) attain independence in generation of

merchandise/ services, iii) encourage long haul harmony in

equalization of installments and iv) guarantee strength in costs and

make benchmarks at costs of fundamental things.

Verifiably, CPSES accept noteworthy significance to India's economy,

both in preand post freedom period. In the preindependence time, the

public sector endeavors were bound essentially to choose sectors

including Railways, Posts & Telegraphs, Port Trust, Ordnance

Factories, and so on. In light of the Public Enterprises (PE) Survey,

2008-09, as on March 31, 2009, 213 CPSES out of a sum of 246

141
CPSES work in five sectors/ related groups, in particular, i)

Agriculture, ii) Mining, iii) Manufacturing, iv) Electricity and v)

Services.

Dissection of the piece of the overall industry of CPSES further

demonstrates that, inside these sectors, the key industries where

CPSES have noteworthy/ overwhelming share incorporate i) Coal and

Crude Oil in the mining sector, ii) Petroleum (Refinery and Marketing)

in the assembling/ preparing sector, iii) Power Generation in the

electricity sector and iv) Telecommunications in the services sector.

Crude Oil and Natural Gas is an alternate industry inside the mining

sector described by critical vicinity of CPSES. Be that as it may, with

the presentation of New Exploration Licensing Policy in 1999, the

industry has seen huge change with private players steadily picking

up toehold in the industry.

 As far as share in oil and gas creation, CPSES help around 81 %

of the aggregate household generation in FY 2009. Key players

incorporate Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India

Ltd. (OIL) representing 89% and 11% share of the aggregate

generation individually

 Among the non CPSES, the key players incorporate private majors

like Reliance Industries Limited, Gujarat State Petroleum

Corporation, Cairn Energy India Ltd, Essar Oil Ltd, and so on.
142
 ONGC was consolidated in 1993 and is occupied with

investigation and creation of hydrocarbons to help and to

guarantee long haul energy practicality of India. It is as of now the

biggest Crude Oil and Gas delivering organization in India, helping

in excess of 70% of the Oil and Oil Equivalent Gas (OEG)

generation in FY 2009

 Globally, ONGC positions third among the Oil & Gas investigation

and creation companies in the world and is 23rd among the main

global energy majors according to Platt's 250 Global Energy

Companies List for the year 2009

 ONGC has been presented the ‘maharatna' status and helps

almost 5% of aggregate CPSE turnover. Further, it positions first

as far as net benefit in FY 2009 among all the CPSES with the net

benefit recorded at Rs. 16126 crores

 ONGC is principally included in Exploration and Production (E&p)

exercises, oversaw through 12 Assets for oil and gas creation

exercises and 7 Basins for directing investigation exercises.

 As far as creation proficiency, ONGC is one of the least cost

Exploration & Production companies, with its normal lifting and

discovering expense being even from an optimistic standpoint in

class International companions

143
 With a perspective to protect itself from the inborn danger of E&p

exercises, resulting to disassembling of APM administration,

ONGC is taking activities to have vicinity over the whole

hydrocarbon quality chain going forward Because of huge control

on costs through Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) by the

Central Government, the CPSES have customarily had a solid

decent footing in the petroleum refining and marketing industry.

Then again, the share of the private sector is relied upon to

increment continuously with the authorizing of RIL's fare situated

refinery at the Jamnagar Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

 In terms of share in petroleum refining and marketing, CPSES

helped around 70 % of the aggregate local generation in FY 2009.

Among the CPSES, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is the business

sector pioneer with 54% piece of the pie emulated by Bharat

Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) with 20% piece of the overall

industry. Other key players having critical vicinity incorporate

Hindustan petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) and Oil & Natural

Gas Corporation (ONGC).

 Among the non CPSES, the key players incorporate private majors

like Reliance Industries Limited, Essar Oil Ltd, and so on.

 IOC was fused in 1964 with the order to serve the national

enthusiasm toward Oil and related sectors and to upgrade the

144
 nation's independence in Oil refining. It is presently the biggest

downstream organization in the Oil and Gas Sector in India,

representing around 46% piece of the overall industry in FY 2009

 Globally, IOC positions third among the petroleum refining and

marketing organization according to Platt's 250 Global Energy

Companies List for the year 2009

 IOC has been presented ‘maharatna' status and helped about 21%

of aggregate CPSE turnover and around 38% of the aggregate

CPSES commitment to the national exchequer by method for taxes

and duties. Further, the organization was among the ten most

astounding benefit making organizations in FY 2009 among all the

CPSES with its net profit at Rs. 2950 crores.

 IOC is essentially occupied with refining and marketing of

petroleum items. Notwithstanding petroleum refining, they are

included in transportation of crude and petroleum items through

its pipelines, innovative work, mixing and generation of greases.

The Company's operations incorporates 6 subsidiaries and 13

budgetary joint wanders (JVS) in the field of petroleum and

petrochemicals

 Continuing with its quest for creating Green innovations, the

organization took off new advances, amid FY 2009 for profound

desulphurization of gasoline and diesel streams

145
 With a specific end goal to meet the redesigned fuel prerequisites

according to the Auto fuel policy of the Government, IOC has set

out on fuel quality up-degree activities to guarantee supporting its

initiative in the refinery and marketing sector.

Customer satisfaction and relationship management are key to a

company’s overall success. While factors such as quality, expertise,

technology and innovation continue to play critical roles, customer

satisfaction and relationship management are determining factors in

retaining client business. In an effort to focus more on the customer,

oilfield services companies are launching static customer surveys for

which results are delayed and rarely reach the intended respondents.

However, customer satisfaction surveys fall short of providing

actionable information. As organizations wait for data collection and

analysis, valuable time is wasted and “at-risk” customer relationships

remain undetected.

The oilfield presents more complications than most industries.

Respondents are harder to find, they have busy schedules, and most

reports on the market provide very small sample sizes. Oilfield

executives likely challenge results, but pay attention to industry

ratings and “seals of approval.” There is no doubt that customer

satisfaction measurement is important. But equally critical is who you

talk to, how and when you conduct the survey and what you do with

the results.

146
Customer Relationship Management. The oil industry

lags behind most others in customer relationship management (CRM).

Apart from minor leveraging of credit

cards and Mobil's SpeedPass, there are few examples of

oil company success in developing customer loyalty.

QuikTrip, Wal-Mart and grocery stores all have customer

relationship models that are far superior to those of the

oil companies. Any oil company that masters CRM

technology and culture will have a sustainable advantage

over its traditional peers.

The petroleum Sector has been a PSU dominated sector, the

downstream oil marketing companies have undergone a major

changeover thanks to the privatization and deregulation of the sector.

Entry of new entrants like SHELL, RELIANCE, NRL, ESSAR etc have

brought Greenfield retail networks along with modern retailing

concepts of international standards in India. Companies are bringing

‘experiences’ for the customer at these retail network and new

strategies have been formulated at the drawing boards of all the oil

majors to look at quick adaptation to higher customer expectations

and newer formats are being planned to entice the customer. While

competition and customer expectation are one part of it, companies

are looking at newer ways to improve their business performances.

147
The market offered little scope for differentiation due to the nature of

the product, prices were low due to intra-country competition and

availability was a prerequisite due to a number of alternative

suppliers. Although the company was manufacturing finished

products at its two refineries and many manufacturing plants, yet,

there was still the need to improve operational efficiencies. The profit

target from business operations was not commensurate and the

company identified that it needed to reduce its overheads and improve

the management of its operations. The company had been working

with a software package, which has been developed way back in 1964,

which originally satisfied the operational efficiency.

The core operations like accounting and other sales modules were

centrally processed at the corporate /regional headquarters and then

reports were prepared. However, mounting pressure from the

customers to have an online system for the products availability,

inventories and pressures particularly from the sales team in view of

the ongoing competition made company to undertake BPR exercise

and thereby leading to ERP implementation and thus emergence of

CRM practices.

However, looking at the CRM models as disposed by leading oil

companies, it was obvious that they were following a common

approach to the CRM business models. The fig 4.2 indicates that to

have a common experience shared across the company, companies

148
were looking at the uniform offerings, formats and locations to corner

the customer loyalty and these were being aided from the four pillars

of brand , technology, operations and overall organizational

philosophy.

Brand

Offer

Operations
Technology

Customer
Experience

Format Location

Loyalty

Organisation

Fig 4.2: CRM Model in PSU’s

4.3 CRM PURSUITS IN PRIVATE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY

The oil and gas sector is dominated by PSUs and a few large private

sector companies. Figure 4.3 highlights the credentials of leading

players in each segment (upstream, midstream and downstream) of

the oil and gas industry.

149
Figure 4.3: Competitive landscape for Oil and Gas sector in India (top

players)

In India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) accounts for

approximately 67per cent of the total oil and gas production, whereas

the Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) and its subsidiary, the Chennai

Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL),command the largest market

share (approximately 48 per cent) in petroleum products. The

country’s refining segment is primarily dominated by domestic players

150
such as Hindustan petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Bharat

Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), IOC and Reliance Industries.72

Reliance had taken up the hospitality side of petroleum retailing

business, which in right earnest can be gauged from the fact that it

has signed up a technical services agreement with US-based Flying J,

a highway hospitality service provider to the transportation sector.

The plan is to set up such outlets every100-300 km or after four-five

hour drive to coincide with the inevitable 'break-journey'. The bases of

pushing this model of value-added retailing was a bid to corner what

it believed will be the next sector after railway and air travel to hit the

growth trajectory – road travel. Given the increasing focus on road

infrastructure in the country, the model was to enroll as many as

customer with this value added service in the petroleum scenario.

Petroleum retailing is a low margin business mostly runs on the

concept of volume margins. The product throughput variation can

only go up with the extra facilities that are offered such as food court

and change room.

Quality of the service and hygiene in the hospitality segment was

considered more important at these stations. Reliance has put a foot

forward in this space by owning up responsibility for this service. The

A1 Plazas served this segment well. Reliance has set up over 120

automobile service centers (R-Care) to go with the A1 Plazas to ensure

72Business Monitor International: India Oil and Gas Report, 2012

151
the creature comforts of the highway traveler by ensuring easy access

to reliable repairs. The plans were also drawn to put ‘Refresh’ –, up-

market eating joints inside select petrol retail premises, to cater the

moneyed highway traveler. To demonstrate the customer oriented

approach, reliance promoted and staged such example in the

relationship marketing in the petroleum sector. Reliance expects

about 150 retail outlets under the Qwik Mart brand name to come up

at select fuel stations across India. Qwik Mart would be an integrated

quick service, quick transaction store, which will offer the convenience

of buying household food and non-food merchandise, music, take-

aways and convenience-oriented ancillary services without a price

penalty. The Qwik Mart value proposition offers convenience through

multiple offerings under one roof, speed of service and value based

pricing. They will be sub-branded as 'Commute' for those located

within cities, 'Journey' for those on highways, and 'Neighborhood' for

those in residential areas. A range of products like beverages, snacks

and confectionery will be available in all the three formats. These

initiatives demonstrate the churning happening in the petroleum

sector and are key factors by companies in drawing plans for long-

term relationships with the customers.

152
4.4 PETROLEUM RETAILING INDUSTRY: NEW CUSTOMER

RELATIONSHIP MANAGENT PURSUITS

The petroleum retailing industry in Asia and Middle East

facessignificant challenges. With low product differentiation, lack of

customer loyalty, coupled with intense competition, due to

deregulation, as in India, the various players will try to gain share

from each other. This will exert downward pressure on margins and

force players to adopt new and innovative strategies.

(All values in US dollars)

India has deregulated the pricing mechanism for retail petroleum,

enabling new players to enter the market, which was once a fiefdom of

the public sector. The entry of new players like Reliance will grow the

number of stations from existing 19,000 to over 23,000-25,000 in next

4-5 years. This will reduce the average throughput per station, and

total fuel volumes per player. With market determined pricing

153
mechanism, prices will have to be lowered, thus reducing margins

from fuel products.

In UAE prices are still regulated by the government. However, the

current 3 players Adnoc Distribution, EPPCO,Emarat, tend to lose

money on retail petrol, due to higher international crude prices. Also,

by 2005 when GATT comes into force, the UAE market is likely to

open up to further competition.

In Singapore, the 4 leading players Exxon Mobil, Shell, Caltexand BP

account for over 95% of the retail fuel sales. Singapore is challenged

with limited geography for addition of new stations. With limited

growth in number of vehicles, the retail fuel volumes will remain

stagnant, offering little scope for improving revenues and margins.

Petroleum Retailing Product or Service? - In growth markets, the

major imperative should be to increase profitable revenues and

market share growth. The petroleum retailers will need to develop

differentiated value propositions, to improve revenues and their

bottom lines; by adopting a customer focused approach and build

strong brand equity. To drive revenues and margins, the retailers will

have to attract new customers or increase share of their existing

customers' wallet. The latter can be achieved by offering non-fuel

products and services. Non-fuel products, which offer higher margins

compared to petroleum products, enable companies to sustain

154
themselves, especially during times when oil prices are high. Though

these products and services have been popular in the West, their

importance is being recently felt in this region. Indian fuel retailers

have started offering grocery, foods, laundry facilities, fresh foods,etc.

at the convenience stores. UAE retailers are upgradingand adding

similar facilities, to attract customers, and makethem spend more

time and money at their facilities. Petroleum retailing is a product and

service, with differentiation possible in either or both areas.

Know your customer: In developing products and services, the key is

to understand your customer. Segmentation is a powerful tool to help

marketers identify the requirements of the customers.

For eg. Mobil segmented the US petroleum consumers into 5segments:

Mobil's customer segmentation in the US: Mobil identified the top 3

segments as being the most profitable and developed its products and

services to cater to the target customers' requirements. An exercise to

understand the customer segments can go a long way for local

155
petroleum retailers to identify the target segments and developing the

appropriate strategy. Cedar has segmented the retail market in Dubai,

as outlined below:

Understand the customer segments can go a long way for local

petroleum retailers to identify the target segments and developing the

appropriate strategy. Cedar has segmented the retail market in Dubai,

as outlined below:

Product and Service Development: Once the choice of target

segment is identified, products and services need to be tailored to

their requirements. The target customer should drive the value

proposition, for both fuel and non-fuel products and services.

Fuel Based Proposition: In the western markets, petroleum retailers

sell multiple grade fuels based on the octane ratings, with different

prices at different stations, where the customer can hunt for a

bargain. In UAE, where unleaded fuel is the norm, 2 grades are

available, Octane 95 and 98. However, the Octane 98 petrol accounts

156
for less than 5% of the over3.3 billion liters consumed. This could be

attributed to the 25% premium over the Octane 95 product price,

which is administered by the government. However, with the large

high-end car population, an opportunity exists in the market to

improve the perception of product superiority and improve the bottom

line. In India too, with the introduction of stringent pollution norms,

coupled with the growth in large cars, the superior product based

opportunity is large. The first mover advantage needs to be captured

and capitalized through a mix of customer education and marketing

activities.

Site Security: With expected new competition, site security is the key.

InUAE and India, with the expansion of roads network, the existing

players book the key sites, to beat future competition. However,

development of the sites is undertaken once the road becomes

operational. The challenge is to use a scientific site selection model, to

ensure that the site is profitable once it is operational.

Site Rationalization: Even though site security is required, it is

critical for managements to monitor performance of their existing and

new stations. Loss making stations need to be identified, and

corrective actions taken to make them profitable. If turnaround is not

possible, it is bestto close them and divert the resources for other sites

or activities.

157
Site Up gradation: The regional players have realized that having an

attractive station, with friendly staff, and offering a range of non-fuel

products and services, is the key to get customers to drive into their

station. Depending on the site space availability, the various players

in India and UAE have started renovating their existing sites, to offer

an international look and feel. The challenge is to priorities the sites

that need to be upgraded first and which could start offering higher

contribution due to the change.

Non-Fuel Based Proposition: To get a larger share of the customers'

wallet, non-fuel products and services are necessary. Non-fuel

revenues contribute significantly for the petroleum retailers US (39%),

France (25%), Europe (15%). In the UAE, it averages 12%-15% for

various players, and offers significant opportunity for development in

the region, especially in India.

The non-fuel products and services can be broadly grouped into 3

categories:

> Convenience stores (C Stores)

> Auto Care Services

> Ancillary Services

158
Convenience Stores: The concept of C stores though relatively new in

India, has got established in the UAE for past 3-5 years. However the

annual average revenue per sq ft in UAE is $325 compared to$550 in

the US and $800 in UK. The average value per transaction in UAE is

less than $3, compared to $6 in the UK.

Factors contributing to the success of C storesproposition:

Product mix drives the C-stores shopping. In the UK,Tobacco (37%),

confectionery & snacks (18%) and soft drinks(8%) are the leading

categories. In the UAE, due to the wide availability of cigarettes in

supermarkets, cigarette contribution is only 14%. It will be the same

case in India, where there are cigarette kiosks at every nook and

corner. The critical issue is to offer a product assortment that drives

the target customer traffic. This could also be in terms of offering fresh

groceries, fresh foods, coffee, hot snacks, etc.Also, special promotions

in terms of discounts on high margin products can drive volumes (eg.

Fountain soft drinks).

Store layout and appearance attract customers to spend more time in

the store. This can be based on research to track the movement of

customers, and hence the likelihood of them

159
Picking the product. Since operating C-stores requiredifferent set of

capabilities in terms of supply chain management and sourcing, the

C-stores operations could beoutsourced. In UAE, all operators

contract the fresh foods management to the food suppliers who

replenish stocks on consumption and take back the unused stock

based after expiry date. A reduced risk model is an alliance or

complete outsourcing, especially in the branded hot foods category

like pizzas, coffee, burgers, etc.

160
Auto Care Services: Auto care services complement the fuel services.

These include lube change, car wash, wheel & tyre services,

carupholstery cleaning, minor repair services, etc. All of these

contribute to the incremental share of the customers' wallet. The car

wash and auto care average around 7% and 4% of the total revenues

for fuel retailers in Japan and US. In theUAE it is between l%-2%.

Also, the lube to fuel volume ratio in UAE is 0.26%, compared to 1%

internationally.However, in the UAE it is observed that where these

services are available, their utilization is high, therefore, they should

be available at more number of locations. In India these services

offered at the stations are at a nascent stage, due to the customer’s

unwillingness to pay the price. Small garage operators tend to offer

these services at a much lower price. The challenge is to understand

the customers' willingness to pay, and design the service, coupled

with right communication to promote them.

161
Ancillary Services: ATMs, laundry facilities, Internet access, mosques

(in the Middle East), etc. get the customer to drive into the station,

and increase his spending. Emarat (Shamil) and Eppco(Tasjeel) in

UAE also offer car testing, registration, and auto insurance facilities,

which are certified by the authorities. This provides the customer a

one-stop-shop for the car's annualcheck-up, and other formalities,

with the luxury of an air-conditioned facility, in less than 30 minutes

compared to the half-day at government facilities. Door-to-door service

is also offered, which requires even lesser time.

Other ancillary services could be potentially offered to include courier

services, car rentals, etc, depending on the customers' requirements.

The idea is to make the petrol station into a destination for the

customer visit. Petroleum marketing has a strong non-fuel element,

which can be leveraged for differentiation in a commodity market

environment.

162
Customer Loyalty Programs: We have been discussing the subject of

acquiring/retaining customers and understanding their requirements.

Customer loyalty programs enable organizations worldwide to achieve

these goals. The loyalty program ensures that the customer limits the

use of competitors' facilities, due to various incentives, which are

offered to him. Secondly, it can capture the buying behavior of the

customer in terms of the types of products, purchase frequency,

amount spent, locations used, etc. Companies can use this valuable

data to differentiate and develop their product and service offerings,

based on the customers' requirements, thereby improving revenues

and profitability. Fuel Cards are being used in theUAE and recently in

India, but primarily for fleetmanagement. Investment in technology is

required, to link allthe forecourt and non-fuel facilities to a common

data system. This investment can go a long way in understanding the

customer.

163
 CHAPTER -5

LITRATURE REVIEW

5.1 STRATEGIES OF CRM

CRM is a for the most part perceived, widely-executed technique for

overseeing and development an organization's communications with

customers. It is a procedure designed to gather data connected with

customers to improve the relationship between an association and its

customers. This is could be attained through creating procedure

customer procurement, customer maintenance, and customer

development. Moreover, CRM has been characterized as the

methodology and the framework for making customer loyalty (Azani,

C., & Khorramshahgol, R., 2005). Moreover, CRM has been considered

as a complete method and methodology of securing, holding, and

joining forces with particular customers to make prevalent worth for

the organization and the customer (Parvatiyarl, A., & Sheth, N. J.,

2001). The CRM is seen as a procedure by which an organization

extends the customer data to enhance loyalty and hold customers.

Therefore, the goal of the CRM is to discover, get, and hold customers

(Choy, K. L., Lee, W. B., & Lo, V. , 2003).

For the thought of this study, we can expect that customer

relationship management is recognized as the center competency and

164
a major playing point of a specific endeavor. Also, we are endeavoring

to present information management ideas, systems, and tools into the

association to turbo charger their customer relationship management

competency, and in addition supercharging the auxiliary or

supporting methodologies or skills so as to considerably enhance

corporate aggressiveness.

There are two real territories to consider regarding reinforcing the

customer relationship management abilities i.e. customer relationship

management capacity or competency overhaul, and supporting

methodology competency development. The three stages in which

CRM can help to backing the relationship between a business and its

customers are, to:

Procure: a CRM can help a business in securing new customers

through phenomenal contact management, direct marketing, selling

and satisfaction. Improve: a web-empowered CRM joined with

customer administration tools offers customers phenomenal

administration from a group of prepared and gifted sales and

administration pros, which offers customers the comfort of one-quit

shopping. (James A. O'brien & George M. Marakas, 2009) Retain:

CRM software and databases empower a business to distinguish and

reward its reliable customers and further create its focused on

marketing and relationship marketing activities.

165
The essentials of customer relationship management developed from

interest on after-sales customer administration. Moreover, it is

focused around sales transactions and escalated data transforming.

With further impact of marketing and customer introduction

standards, customer relationship management advances to reception

of quality included critical thinking and modified services. Then again,

a definitive customer relationship management rule is to construct

customer loyalty and lifetime patronization.

The expression customer relationship management (CRM) has only

been in use since the early 1990s. Since then there have been many

attempts to define the domain of CRM. As a relatively immature

business or organizational practice, a consensus has not yet emerged

about what counts as CRM. Even the meaning of the three-letter

acronym CRM is contested. For example, although most people would

understand that CRM means customer relationship management,

others have used the acronym to mean customer relationship

marketing.

The concept of Customer Relationship Management has its roots in

relationship marketing. The following figure presents the triangle

showing differences between those terms.

166
 Figure 5.1Customer Relationship Management

Relationship marketing brought new approach to relations with

customers, creating at the same time new market assumptions. CRM

is a business strategy focused on maximizing shareholder value

through winning, growing, and keeping the right customers. We can

distinguish here two important elements. First of all, concentrating on

the most important from company’s perspective customers and second

of all retaining long-term relationship with them.

That is why it is essential to collect consequently customers’ opinions,

complaints and new needs. In this way it is possible to approach a

client more individually, and make them feel important for the

company, because each company is worth as much as customer

values it. Satisfied client will also recommend company’s products to

their friends. Therefore the main challenges are:

 Building long - term partner relations with customers,

167
 Identifying and focusing on the most significant customers,

 Acquiring and retaining new customers,

In developing CRM strategies whole organizations should be engaged.

It includes adequate approach in terms of sales, marketing and

customer support. A truly comprehensive picture of customer might

include information collected by sales partners, suppliers or

collaborative service deliverers. When company limits whole its

attention only to operational activities, it can decrease communication

between business and customer. Initial CRM implementations should

be based on adequate information and perspective about customers

and the firm’s demand environment. Once implemented, CRM should

allow organizations to see beyond the boundaries of the internal

enterprise, and collect, analyze, and leverage such insight. It should

include following issues:

 Understanding markets and customers (gathering market

information, selecting target markets),

 Ability of dealing with different customers in different ways,

 Focusing on one-to-one relations by satisfying needs of individual

customers,

 Developing an offer (selecting products, positioning, differentiating),

 Providing customer care (delivery process, service process, support,

loyalty programs).

168
According to M. Stanusha, the main purpose of the concept from this

perspective should be achieving such state, when high – profitable

customers, each time they have a specific need, theywould see only

one company, that could satisfy it. It is big challenge, however

possible thanks to good communication with customer. CRM systems

enable any representative of a company to remember who they are

talking to, no matter what the transaction might be. It is essential to

getto know all the processes used by potential customer to create

value. JOtto said that company which wants to follow rules of CRM

concept should use all the means in order to precisely get to know

these processes. It should also concentrate on retaining mutual trust

between company and customer. The product itself is important, but

it is not enough just to produce it, advertise and find recipients. In

order that customers keep it in conscience, it is important also to take

care of such things as additional service, such as transport, insurance

and guarantee. Such activities help to consolidate this relationship

and attach customer to the company. CRM enables to differentiate

products by adding new dimension, where even mass-produced

products can differ with type of relationship which company has with

its customers. So there is no point on concentrating on maximization

of single transaction, but company should focus on creating strong

and long – term relationship with customer. The shift to customer-

centricity has implications for the entire organization, requiring

changes in company’s business culture, processes, and supporting

169
systems. However to get full benefits, it is necessary to create

interactions which are based on trust between both parties and aim to

mutual improvement of this relationship.

Summing up, CRM as a strategy focuses on building and

consolidating a loyal group of regular customers, through constant

satisfying of their needs and even going beyond these needs and

individual preferences. In order to achieve this goal it is necessary to

build strong relationships with those customers based on mutual

trust.73

The idea of CRM is that it helps businesses use technology, human

resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the value

of those customers to provide better customer service, simplify

marketing, and sales processes, cross sell products more effectively,

help sales staff close deals faster, discover new customers and

increase customer revenues. CRM is about creating a competitive

advantage by being the best at understanding, communicating, and

delivering and developing existing customer relationships in addition

to creating and keeping new customers.

5.2 CONCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

At a time of intense competition and increasingly demanding

consumers, relationship marketing has attracted the attention of both

73Dougan S., Customer Relationship Management Strategies In Financial Services, London, Business
Insights Ltd., 2004
170
researchers and managers. Academics have focused their attention on

its scope, and developed a conceptual framework aimed at

understanding the nature and value of the relationships not only with

customers but also with a number of other stakeholders. Many

researchers with varied interests in the field of marketing – such as

distribution channels, services marketing, business-to-business

marketing and marketing communication – have studied and explored

the conceptual fundamentals of relationship marketing and its

application in the business world (Palmer, Lind green and Vanhamme,

2005). In1994 Grönroos stated that relationship marketing would

probably turn into one of the dominant paradigmsin marketing theory.

What are the origins of this approach? It is generally accepted that the

roots of the expression “relationship marketing” can be found in the

early 1980s. Two years later, in the context of a project related to

industrial marketing, Barbara Jacksonuses the same expression of

“relationship marketing “in her book Winning and Keeping Industrial

Customers as well as in an article published in Harvard Business

Review in 1985. This fact bears mentioning: the two researchers who

introduced the expression– one in the area of services and the other in

the industrial field – indicate, to some extent, its conceptual pillars.

Finally, we must also mention the great Theodore Levitt, who in 1983,

without using the term “relationship marketing” in those exact words,

states that the objective of a business should not be limited to sales in

itself but should also provide the greatest customer satisfaction,

171
which depends on “how well the relationship is managed by the

seller”.

In 25 years, relationship marketing has undergone a significant

evolution, with its current status undeniable. A recent Google search

showed close to 8 000 000hits for the search term “relationship

marketing”. On the other hand, the American Marketing Association

changed its definition of marketing in 2004, putting in evidence its

relational nature: “marketing is an organizational function and a set of

processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to

customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that

benefit the organization and its stakeholders.” It’s interesting to

compare this definition with the one adopted before: “marketing is the

process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion,

and distribution of goods, ideas, and services to create exchanges that

satisfy individual and organizational goals.” It should be noted that

the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing published a special issue at

the end of 2007 dedicated to the theme of “The American Marketing

Association’s New Definition of Marketing: Perspectives on Its

Implications for Scholarship and the Role and Responsibility of

Marketing in Society”, which reveals how the definition of marketing

has changed its focus.74

74Berry, L. (1983). “Relationship Marketing”, in Berry, L. Shostack, G. and Upah, G. (editors), Emerging
Perspectives
in Services Marketing, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL.
172
Relationship marketing is based on the generation of a foundation of

shared interest, in which companies and customers are committed to

each other. Companies strive to use interactions with customers to

generate commitment, a lasting desire in customers to maintain a

valued relationship, and trust, a readiness to rely on the exchange

partner. Trust is considered especially critical for relational exchanges

because it is a crucial determinant of commitment. An important

antecedent of trust is communication (Morgan and Hunt 1994).

Communication in the CRM context involves the sharing of

information between a firm and its customers (De Wulf, Odeken-

Schröder, and Iacobucci 2001). To establish and maintain

relationships, it is also imperative that organizations use the

information to shape appropriate responses to customer needs. In

effect, information plays a key role in building and maintaining

customer relationships.

Consequently, CRM subsumes a collection of activities, for example,

sub-processes related to the evaluation and prioritization of current

and prospective customers, and market relating tactics that are not

under the purview of relationship marketing. Therefore, although

relationship marketing and CRM are both concerned with relationship

development and maintenance activities, crucial differences regarding

the intended process outputs (i.e., close, collaborative exchange

relationships vs. profit maximizing and performance of customer

173
relationships) and the (necessarily) broader nature of CRM indicate

that the two are related but have distinct phenomenon.75

5.3 CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT - INCREASING

EFFICIENCY OF CRM WITH KM

Customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge

management (KM) initiatives are directed towards the same goal: the

delivery of continuous improvement towards customers. Initiatives

stemming from this effort have been labeled ‘customer knowledge

management’ (CKM) or ‘knowledge-enabled CRM’ (Geib andRiempp,

2002)76. In this contribution, we conceptualize CKM as the utilization

of knowledge for, from and about customers in order to enhance the

customer-relating capability of organizations. Recent research shows

that an organization’s KM capabilities are the most significant critical

success factor affecting CRM impact. However, due to a history of poor

solutions coupled with technology failures, many companies have a

hard time justifying CKM initiatives in today’s business world.

Nevertheless, the idea of combining KM initiatives with CRM activities

is still alive as it has also proven to bring about considerable benefits

when done correctly (Gibbert et al., 2002)77.The CRM discipline’s

75Christopher, M., Payne, A. and Ballantyne, D. (2002).Relationship Marketing: Creating Stakeholder

Value, Butterwort-Heinemann, Oxford.
76Geib, M. and Riempp, G. (2002) Customer Knowledge Management, In: Geschäftsprozessorientiertes

Wissensmanagement - Effektive Wissensnutzung bei der Planung und Umsetzung von

Geschäftsprozessen (Eds., Abecker, A., Hinkelmann, K., Maus, H. and Müller, H. J.), Springer, Berlin et
al., pp. 393-417.
77Gibbert, M., Leibold, M. and Probst, G. (2002) Five Styles of Customer Knowledge Management, and

How Smart Companies Use Them To Create Value, European Management Journal, 20, 5, 459 - 469.
174
relationship with KM approaches and technologies has widely been

recognized as a relevant field of research.

As CRM processes can be considered semi-structured or even

unstructured, they reveal a high complexity as well as strong

knowledge intensity. Since collecting, storing and distributing relevant

knowledge for those CRM processes makes the deployment of KM

techniques necessary, it is evident that an organization’s KM

capabilities play a key role in CRM success. In this context, KM can be

defined as “the process of critically managing knowledge to meet

existing needs, to identify and exploit existing and acquired knowledge

assets and to develop new opportunities.” Likewise, CKM can be

defined as the systematic handling and management of knowledge

collected at customer interaction points which are required for the

efficient and effective support of business processes.

As a further concretization of this notion, we distinguish three kinds

of knowledge flows that play a vital role in the interaction between an

organization and its customers: knowledge for, from and about

customers. Firstly, in order to support customers in their buying

cycle, a continuous knowledge flow directed from the company to its

customers (i.e. knowledge for customers) is a prerequisite. Knowledge

for customers comprises information about products, markets and

suppliers and is primarily addressed by CRM service processes. This

knowledge dimension also impacts the customer’s perception of the

175
service quality - which has been identified as an important

determinant of satisfactory financial performance (Wang and Lo,

2004)78.

At the same time, knowledge from customers has to be incorporated

by the company for product and service innovation, idea generation as

well as for the continuous improvement of its products and services.

Capturing customer knowledge and involving customers in the

innovation process can be achieved in various ways (Gibbert et al.,

2002). For example, customers’ knowledge about products, suppliers

and market trends can be used via appropriate feedback mechanisms

to enable a systematic improvement and innovation of products

(Gibbert et al., 2002).

The collection and analysis of knowledge about customers is certainly

one of the oldest forms of KM activity in the CRMdomain. Besides the

customer’s master data and past transactions, knowledge about the

customer encompasses the customer’s present needs and

requirements, future desires, connections, purchasing activity and

financial capability. Knowledge about customers is collected in

CRMservice and support processes and analyzed in CRM analysis

processes.

78Wang, Y. and Lo, H.-P. (2004) Customer-focused Performance and its Key Resource-based
Determinants: An Integrated Framework, Cr, 14, 1&2.
176
Up to now, there has been an abundance of publications to KM, which

fall into two broad categories, epistemological and ontology oriented

KM models. Within epistemology mainly the cognitivistic and the

autopoietic approaches have been of significance to the area of KM.

The cognitivistic approach describes knowledge as stored in distinct

knowledge structures which are created through rule based

manipulation and can exists independently of an individual. In

contrast, the autopoietic approach according to states that knowledge

is context sensitive and embodied in the individual. 79

According to the autopoietic epistemology, individuals acquire

knowledge by observing and interpreting their environment. They can

actively transfer knowledge between themselves through articulation

and different types of interaction. The main differentiating

characteristic of knowledge is the difficulty of its articulation.

Knowledge that can be easily articulated is labeled “explicit

knowledge”. Knowledge, that is difficult to articulate and therefore

difficult to transfer is labeled “tacit knowledge” which was superseded

by the term “implicit knowledge”. With their SECI KM model Nonaka

and Takeuchi have formulated an encompassing epistemological

autopoietic KM model.80

79von Krogh, G., Roos, J. and Slocum, K., "An Essay on Corporate Epistemology", Strategic Management
Journal, Vol. 15, No. Special Issue: Strategy: Search for New Para-digms, Summer, 1994, 1994, pp. 53-
71.
80von Foerster, H., "Principles of self-organization in socio-managerial context", in: Ulrich, H. and Probst,

G. J. B. (Eds.), Self-organization and Management of Social Systems, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1984, pp.
2-24.
177
Ontological KM models on the other hand view knowledge as a “black

box”. The characteristics of knowledge are defined through its

relationships with a constructed universe of discourse. Modeling

dimensions frequently used by ontological KM models in-clude a

process dimension and an agent dimension.

Process oriented KM models focus on the characteristics of knowledge

during its lifecycle. They analyze the relationships and environmental

variables that influence the processes of knowledge development,

dissemination, modification and use. Examples for process oriented

KM models. Agent oriented KM models focus on the characteristics of

knowledge during the flow between individuals. They analyze the

variables that expedite or hinder the flow of knowledge in social

networks. Examples for agent oriented KM models.

Most KM models developed within the last decade include

characteristics of both views. Nonaka has integrated an agent ontology

dimension in 1994 and he tries to fully bond both views in his concept

of “BA” . 81

Marketing, sales, and service are primary business functions [26] with

the characteristics of a high degree of direct customer interaction and

knowledge intensity. We derive our process model by detailing these

functions into relevant business processes, which may be cross-

81Wenger,E., Communities of Practice: Learning, Mean-ing, and Identity, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1997.
178
functional. A CRM business process involves the processing of

customer knowledge to pursue the goals of relationship marketing.

Usually it also involves direct customer contact and the exchange of

information or services between enterprise and customer. Such

processes are either triggered by the customer with the aim of

receiving information or services or by the enterprise with the aim of

delivering information or services to customers. Each process handles

a specific business object which distinguishes it from other processes.

Based on [31, pp. 57 et seqq.] and our own action research experience

we identified campaign management, lead management, offer

management, con-tract management, complaint management, and

service management as the six relevant CRM business processes (cf.

figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2: Customer Knowledge Management process model

179
The contribution of this study lies in illustrating the successful

application of the CKM process model in different companies in an

operational setting. In each case critical customer processes were

identified, KM instruments suitable for those processes selected ac-

cording to the CKM process model and then implemented. This

resulted in significant performance improvements in those processes

eventually enabling higher revenues and/or lower costs.

Case one identified content creation and knowledge navigation as

crucial elements within the CCC and service management. The CKM

process model suggests content management systems with an easily

maintainable content structure and search functionality as

appropriate KM instruments for these elements.

With the implemented system the duration of ser-vice calls and the

quality of the provided service could be improved, enhancing

knowledge transfer to the customer, resulting in higher customer

satisfaction, higher loyalty and thus, higher revenue. Also, more

efficient content creation was facilitated, resulting in lower costs.

5.4CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND LOYALTY

Customer loyalty is defined with consideration paid to the amount of

buying for a given trademark. The level of loyalty is measured by the

watching of the frequency of buying. With the increase in the amount

of accessible information in recent years, the conscious level of

180
customers has improved continually. Today’s customers are aware of

the power they have on the market and that every activity is realized

for them. It is now easier to reach the products and services. Before

choosing a given trademark, consumers look at the price, newness,

accessibility of the product and the additional services offered. As the

alternatives increased, consumers’ loyalty to the products and services

decreased. Today firms have entered into an effort to present at a

lower cost than their rivals the products and services that can meet

the customer wishes and expectations fully, so that they can render

customers more loyal.

Whether enterprises can make their current customers loyal depends

on whether they can manage the customer relationships well. As

customers have grown to be more conscious consumers, enterprises

have had to pay the prices of the errors and faults they do in customer

relationships. The most important quality of the 1990s is that

customers revealed their power then. They realized that they

themselves had something to say and have themselves listened to. The

firms, then, understood that they had to listen to their customers so

as to be able to sustain their presence in the market. (Bozkurt, 2000:

25) After the 2000s, with the increased use and effect of the internet

and such platforms as discussion groups, customers had the

opportunity to be more powerful and effective against the enterprises.

Thus, enterprises noticed that they could only be successful if they

adopted customer-based marketing.

181
Customer loyalty is the major concern today for organizations and is a

critical issue for sustainability in today’s competitive market place.

One of the challenges faced today by the companies other than

increasing the sales of products, reduction of marketing cost and

other marketing variables, is to minimize customer defection. This is

because loyal customers’ tend to produce greater cash flow and

profits; and they are less sensitive to price increases, they generate

positive word of mouth messages and they do not have an acquisition

cost (Reichheld, 2000;)82. One of the primary goals of CRM is

customer retention or customer loyalty (Verhoef, 2003)83.

The concept of customer loyalty often builds up long-term customer

relationships. The advantage of building such loyal relationship is to

increase companies’ profitability as loyalty brings about low

transaction costs, reduced price sensitivity and increase

recommendations thru WOM. The two main strategies to achieve

customer loyalty are to enroll the customer into long-term

relationships and ensuring sustained customer satisfaction. Customer

satisfaction is characterized by trust and being treated well in the

future and it is customer’s overall evaluation of the performance of an

offering to date. This overall satisfaction has a strong positive effect on

customer loyalty intentions across a wide range of product and service

categories. Satisfaction typically mediates the effects of product

82Reichheld, Frederick and Thomas Teal (2000), The Loyalty Effect . Boston: Harvard Business School
Press.
83Verhoef, Peter C. (2003), "Understanding the Effect of Customer Relationship Management Efforts on

Customer Retention and Customer Share Development," Journal of Marketing, 67 (October), 30-45.
182
quality, service quality, and price or payment equity on loyalty. It also

contains a significant affective component, which is created through

repeated product or service usage (Oliver, 1999)84. In a service

context, overall satisfaction is similar to overall evaluations of service

quality. Compared with more episodic or transaction-specific

measures of performance, overall evaluations are more likely to

influence the customer behaviors that help a firm, such as positive

word of mouth and repurchase (Boulding et al., 1993).

5.5 IT AND CRM

Information technology (IT) companies have tended to use the

termCRM to describe the software applications that automate the

marketing, selling and service functions of businesses. This equates

CRM with technology. Although the market for CRM software is now

populated with many players, it started in 1993 when Tom Siebel

founded Siebel Systems Inc. Use of the term CRM can be traced back

to that period.

Forrester, the technology research organization, estimates that

worldwide spending on CRM technologies will reach US$11 billion per

annum by2010. Others with a managerial rather than technological

emphasis claim that CRM is a disciplined approach to developing and

maintaining profitable customer relationships, and that technology

may or may not have a role.

84Oliver, Richard L. (1999), "Whence Consumer Loyalty?" Journal of Marketing, 63 (Special Issue), 33-44.
183
Many CRM implementations are seen as IT initiatives, rather than

broader strategic initiatives. True, most CRM implementations require

the deployment of IT solutions. However, this should not be

misunderstood. To say that CRM is about IT is like saying that

gardening is about the spade or that art is about the paintbrush. IT is

an enabler, a facilitator. Improvements come about in the way

customers are managed through a combination of improved

processes, the right competencies and attitudes (people), the right

strategies and the right enabling technologies.

The importance of people and processes should not be

underestimated. People develop and implement the processes that are

enabled by IT. IT cannot compensate for bad processes and unskilled

people. SuccessfulCRM implementations involve people designing and

implementing processes that deliver customer and company value.

Often, these processes are IT-enabled. IT is therefore a part of most

CRM strategies. That said, not all CRM initiatives involve IT

investments. An overarching goal of many CRM projects is the

development of relationships with, and retention of, highly valued

customers. This may involve behavioral changes in store employees,

education of call centre staff, and a focus on empathy and reliability

from salespeople. IT may play no role at all.85

85Gamble, P., Stone, M. and Woodcock, N. (1999) Customer relationship marketing: up close and
personal.London: Kogan Page; Jain, S.C. (2005). CRM shifts the paradigm. Journal of Strategic
Marketing , Vol. 13, December, pp. 275–291; Evans, M., O’Malley, L. and Patterson, M. (2004) Exploing
direct and customer relationship marketing . London: Thomson.
184
Customer relationship management has been so pervasive that it has

evolved both as a business philosophy and as a technology. View CRM

as one of three core macro level business processes and define it as

“all aspects of identifying customers, creating customer knowledge,

building customer relationships, and shaping their perspectives of the

organization and its products.” Others use the term CRM to refer to

“the use of technology to manage customer interactions and

transactions”, which explicitly recognizes technology’s importance to

CRM processes. However, technologies alone often cannot perform the

CRM business process that Srivastava, Shervani, and Fahey describe;

yet people often use technological tools to implement the CRM

business process.

Customer relationship management (CRM) can be thought of as IT-

enabled relationship marketing. It has numerous definitions and

perspectives, and success of implementation has been limited to date.

Literature on the subject gives importance of a balance between

strategy formulation, IT and organizational alignment when adopting

and implementing CRM in a business environment. Customer

relationship management (CRM) has emerged in recent years as the

convergence of a number of factors. coined the term ‘relationship

marketing’, which encouraged a new movement towards customer

relationships rather than customer transactions promoted the

concept of one-to-one marketing and of mass customization, and

(Reichheld, 1996) further motivated companies with his research on

185
loyalty and empirical evidence of the profitability of customer

retention. Customer lifetime value (CLV) has become a key element of

CRM.

5.6 SATISFACTION AND PROFITABILITY

There are two principal interpretations of satisfaction within the

literature of satisfaction as a process and satisfaction as an outcome.

Early concepts of satisfaction research have typically defined

satisfaction as a post choice evaluative judgment concerning a specific

purchase decision.

The most widely accepted model, in which satisfaction is a function of

discontinuation, which in turn is a function of both expectations and

performance. The discontinuation paradigm in process theory

provides the grounding for the vast majority of satisfaction studies

and encompasses four constructs ± expectations, performance,

discontinuation and satisfaction. This model suggests that the effects

of expectations are primarily through discontinuation, but they also

have an effect through perceived performance, as many

studies have found a direct effect of perceived performance on

satisfaction. Swan and Combs (1976) were among the first to argue

that satisfaction is associated with performance that fulfils

expectations, while dissatisfaction occurs when performance falls

below expectations. In addition. Poiszand Von Grumbkow (1988) view

186
satisfaction as a discrepancy between the observed

and the desired. This is consistent with value-percept disparity theory

which was developed in response to the problem that consumers

could be satisfied by aspects for which expectations never existed. The

value-percept theory views satisfaction as an emotional response

triggered by cognitive-evaluative process. In other words, it is the

comparison of the "object" to one's values rather than an expectation.

Customers want a meeting between their values (needs and wants)

and the object of their evaluations. More recently, renewed

attention has been focused on the nature of satisfaction = emotion,

fulfillment and state. Consequently, recent literature adds to this

perspective in two ways. First, although traditional models implicitly

assume that customer satisfaction is essentially the result of cognitive

processes, new conceptual developments suggest that affective

processes may also contribute substantially to the

explanation and prediction of consumer satisfaction. Second,

satisfaction should be viewed as a judgment based on the cumulative

experience made with a certain product

or service rather than a transaction-specific phenomenon (Wilton and

Nicosia. 1986).

Customer satisfaction is defined as a customer's overall evaluation of

the performance of an offering to date. This overall satisfaction has a

187
strong positive effect 011 customer loyalty intentions across a wide

range of product and service categories (Gustafsson, 2005).86

The satisfaction judgment is related to all the experiences made with a

certain business concerning its given products, the sales process, and

the after- sale service.

Whether the customer is satisfied after purchase also depends on the

offer’s performance in relation to the customer's expectation.

Customers form their expectation from past buying experience,

friends' and associates' advice, and marketers' and competitors'

information and promises (Kotler. 2003).87

(Yeung and Ennew, 2001)88, found that satisfaction does not always

lead to loyalty. Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann (1994) found that

customer satisfaction had a strong effect on profitability as measured

by the company’s return on investment. Further, they found that

there was a strong immediate effect and a weaker carryover effect of

customer satisfaction on a company’s profitability, which implied that

customer satisfaction in one period influenced profitability in that

period and also in the next period. The rationale provided by

Anderson, Fornell and Rust (1997) could explain the mixed evidence

for a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and financial

86Gustafsson Anders, Johnson Michael D..& Roos Inger. 2005, 'The Effects of
Customer Satisfaction, Relationship Commitment
87Kotler Philip. 2003. Marketing Management. Pearson Education.Inc. Fifth edition.
88Yeung, M.C.H. and Ennew, C.T. (2001) Measuring the impact of customer satisfaction on profitability: a

sectoral analysis.Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing 10(2), 106–16.
188
performance measures found by Yeung and Ennew (2001). Similarly,

Standard and Poor’s Compustat, found that the relationship between

satisfaction and profitability varied from industry to industry, with

positive relationships in some industries and no relationships in

others. As the difference between customer desires and the company’s

offerings increase, the level of satisfaction with the company’s

offerings will decrease. Research (Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann,

1994; Griffin and Hauser, 1993; Fornell and Wernerfelt, 1987, 1988)

has found that satisfaction and market share are negatively related

simply because a given company’s limited resources cannot maintain

the same level of satisfaction achieved in a niche market when the

firm makes inroads into other larger markets.

Customer satisfaction has significant implications for the economic

performance of companies (Bolton, Lemon, and Verhoef, 2002)89.

Customer satisfaction has been found to have a negative impact on

customer complaints and a positive impact on customer loyalty and

usage behavior. Increased customer loyalty may increase usage levels,

secure future revenues, and minimize the likelihood of customer

defection. Customer satisfaction may also reduce costs related to

warranties, complaints, defective goods, and field service costs.

89Bolton,
R.N., Lemo, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C. (2002), “The theoretical underpinnings of customer asset
management: a framework and propositions for future research”, ERIM Report Series Research in
Management, ERS-2002-80- MKT, ERIM, Rotterdam.

189
 CHAPTER - 6

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology has been defined as a framework that outlines

the methods and procedures to be followed when collecting and

analyzing the required information from respondents. After the

formulation of the research problem, the research design must be

developed. A research design is a master plan specifying the methods

and procedures for collecting and analyzing information (Zikmund,

2003:65)

The base of this study was formed by a literature review of the

variables of Customer Relationship Management and Customer

Loyalty. Empirical research was undertaken to investigate the

relationship between the different variables. A distinction can be made

between two research criterion, namely qualitative and quantitative

research.

The purpose of quantitative research is to determine the quantity or

extent of some phenomenon in the form of numbers (Zikmund,

2003:111).90

90 Zikmund, W.G. (2003). Business research methods.7th edition. Mason: Thomson South-Western.
190
This study was conducted in two phases, in the first phase focus was

on qualitative research, and in the second phase focus was on

quantitative research.

The focus group interview assisted the researcher in developing the

questionnaire and provided the desired information on CRM and

customer loyalty from Liberty Life’s viewpoint (Rootman, 2006:22).91

The questionnaire was used during the quantitative phase of the

research. The second phase of the study was based on quantitative

research. The reason for quantitative data is that it is easy to interpret

the results in simple conclusions.

The petroleum sector has been de-regularized by the Government; yet,

the sector works under some policy system of the Government of

India. The petroleum sector in the last 3-4 years has been presented

to rivalry and off late the customers have encountered a lot of people

new streets to bait them and change their buying propensities. New

players have entered into the field of petroleum marketing and have

mixed the opposition. This has opened up numerous sectors inside

the petro-retailing and numerous streets towards the customer profits

have been arranged. The study looks for the business execution and

market pointers in the light of the aggressive elements and how the

business execution has been upgraded.

91 Rootman, C. (2006). The influence of customer relationship management on the service quality of
banks. Unpublished master‟s dissertation. Port Elizabeth: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
191
The skeleton has been planned at levels where endeavors of

organization, products, brands, and its impacts on individual

customer were seen. The structure is focused around the prior work

done by Reinartz, Krafft, Wayne( 2004),92which highlighted the CRM

procedure, its measurement and effect on execution. The model has

been fittingly examined in the writing review. The CRM deliberations

of public sector oil organizations were focused around the start that to

enhance business execution, customer is at the inside of

consideration for all activities. To focus on it, joining the customer

with the fitting investigation of the writing and after that formalizing

the suitable questions, which have been replied in the research work.

The point was to create the extension, which will then be utilized to

serve meeting the research destination and sub targets. The following

period of the study was an exact investigation of company and its

customer. The research methodology was exact through data

accumulation from the company's records; overview Research,

through organized questionnaire and Interviews. The institutionalized

and approved questionnaire was utilized for this. The data gathered

was examined through officially created engineering. With a specific

end goal to approve the research, the study was directed in Retail

business arrangement of every organization.

92Reinartz,Werner, Manfred Krafft, and Wayne D. Hoyer (2004), “The Customer Relationship Management
Process: Its Measurement and Impact on Performance,” Journal of Marketing Research, 41 (August),
293–305.
192
In light of the preparatory study of the data, availability, technique for

operation and based the variables as said above, it was inferred that

the data might be gathered from the three significant oil organizations

as the joined market share of these organizations is in excess of 95%

and measurably they speak to the market introduction. The data

gathering was hence limited to three organizations' i.e. IOC, BPC and

HPC. IBP Company has since fused with IOC and accordingly has not

been considered independently.

6.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The point of this study is to illuminate the examination system

important to this study, which is the purpose for the achievement or

disappointment of CRM activities in diverse organizations from the

management viewpoint, with the aim to study organizations in diverse

industries and distinctive nations.

CRM, as a rising control, is in extraordinary need of hypothetical help.

Directing hypotheses and models are in short supply in the field, most

likely because of the truth that it is another range for examination and

due to its trade with IT and data systems, which have been quickly

creating. The focal examination question for this study is: Why and

how do CRM activities succeed then again fall flat? Inquire about

around there will help building flourishing customer relationships

what's more long haul corporate survival. Furthermore, discriminating

193
achievement elements for CRM activities are to be drawn from the

exploration discoveries.

The aims and objectives will be researched in the Indian Petroleum

Corporate Sector, which are Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, IBP Company Limited,

MRPL, BRPL, AOD all Government of India Enterprise under the

nomenclature of Public Sector Oil Companies. In order to arrive at an

empirical outcome of the study, the data collected from the customers

impacting the Customer relationships between the company and

customers shall be analyzed, which was collected from the Sample

data collected directly from the customers in the National Capital

Region (NCR). Data has been taken from company’s internal records,

from Government of India records and also from sources, which from

petroleum company point of view were authenticate and relevant. The

basic aim of the research is to understand the significance of CRM for

the chosen corporate and its relevance in current business strategic

context. From the collected data, it was seen whether business

performance could be enhanced using CRM practices in this

organization. In order to empirically prove that the business

performance is enhanced: the company’s secondary data has been

used.

194
6.2SUGGESTED RESEARCH MODEL

Research systems might be characterized in different ways, however a

standout amongst the most widely recognized refinements is in the

middle of qualitative and quantitative exploration strategies. The

Wikipedia reference book characterizes quantitative research as "the

precise scientific examination of quantitative properties and

phenomena and their relationships". The target of quantitative

examination is to apply numerical models to natural phenomena and

utilization estimation that gives the central association between

experimental perception furthermore numerical interpretation of

quantitative relationships (Wikipedia online lexicon).

Then again, qualitative exploration strategies are designed to help

specialists comprehend individuals and the social connections inside

which they live. Kaplan and Maxwell (1994) contend that the objective

of comprehension a wonder from the perspective of the members is to

a great extent lost when text based data are measured. Since one of

the major explanations behind doing qualitative exploration is to wind

up more accomplished with the marvel under study and to research

perplexing and touchy issues, in this manner the analyst chose to

receive a qualitative technique to help in understanding and

investigating CRM activities in their genuine setting.

195
The Conceptual model for this study is gotten from the hypotheses

and proposes in the past research. The research system proposed in

this study tries to inspect the CRM determinants and the business

properties affected by CRM. Since the business properties are affected

by CRM, they likewise sway the conclusion execution of the

businesses. Moreover, a portion of the CRM determinants

straightforwardly or in a roundabout way additionally affect the

conclusion of the business execution.

It is estimated that the relationship between the CRM determinants

and the business characteristics are then again genuine and they

thusly impact one another. The net result of the two likewise impacts

the business execution. The marketing writing generally discusses the

business execution conclusion in connection to the Sales execution

and also market share. The Market writing considers the sales

execution of the assembling organizations and numerous different

organizations. Be that as it may, the oil organizations, which service

biggest number of customers, are, no doubt surveyed in this

connection and exceptionally limited writing supports this study.

6.3 RESEARCH DESIGN

The examination design is experimental in nature since the study is

led by utilizing both investigative and analytic kind of exploration. The

study is directed in two stages form, with a preparatory pilot study

196
emulated by the fundamental study. The significant piece of the study

is focused around essential data.

A research endeavor examination design was utilized to give an inside

and out investigation of the marvel. A research endeavor examination

design is a scientific technique for examination in which data is

gathered and investigated with a specific end goal to depict the

current conditions, terms or relationships concerning an issue of a

given single element extension. The study embraced this approach on

the variables influencing successful appropriation of petroleum items

in India.

The research design has the premise in the quantitative model

strategies, which was viewed as proper with the end goal of this study

- to test and observationally accept a measure of customer

relationship with the execution of the public sector oil organizations.

One issue, which is confronted with such research study, is that of

dependability, legitimacy and characteristic inclination, which can

leak into the study because of the data interface being the customers.

The present study has taken enough safeguards that such blunders

and inconsistencies don't set into the system. The premise of this

statement is the accessibility of the confirmation focused around the

broad research methodology, which is obligatory for the improvement

of legitimate analytic questionnaire and instruments, supplemented

capably by the speculations referred to in the hypothesis and

197
literature. The study has the premise of exploratory research strategy,

which can be tested with the assistance of a hypothesis. It is likewise

enlightening as it gives depiction of the contemporary CRM practices,

which are, no doubt followed. Likewise, the study is not illustrative, as

it doesn't test the cool relationships.

The present research utilizes a cross-sectional study design. Cross-

sectional design includes the accumulation of data from any given

specimen of populace components just once (Kumar, 1995)93clarified

that this design is suitable for studies that plan to investigate a

wonder, circumstance, issue, demeanor or issue by considering a

cross-area of the populace at one point in time. The preference of this

method is that it is less expensive and less time expending than a

longitudinal design. Actually, the greater part of surviving Customer

Relationship Management and Business execution studies have

utilized cross-sectional designs.

The Customer relationship management and its impact of Business

performance in public sector oil companies has been the topic under

discussion. Since the companies have various business lines:

 Supplying directly to the large customers, which the company

does to its large industrial consumers buying quantities in bulk.

93Kumar. Nirmalya, Lisa K, Sheer, and Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp (1995), "The Effects of Perceived
Interdependence on Dealer Attitudes," Journal of Marketing Research, 32 (August), pp. 348-356.
198
 Supplying to large number of LPG customers which the company

is necessarily doing thru its large dealer network.

 Supplying Petrol and diesel to the direct retails customer who are

primarily using fuels for usage of self-consumption in their

automobiles and vehicles.

To understand the CRM efforts of the company and how they have

impacted the business performance, the entire exercise has been done

with in the retail segment and therefore customer data has been

collected with respect to the public sector oil companies.

6.4 DATA COLLECTION

Various techniques could be used to gather primary data for

descriptive research. These includes personal interviews, self-

administered surveys, postal surveys, telephonic surveys and

observation.

Essential data on the elements influencing powerful dissemination in

the petroleum industry will be gathered. Auxiliary data was gotten

from important writing audit from papers, diaries, magazines and the

web. Essential data was gathered utilizing semi organized polls. These

surveys were built with both open and shut finished inquiries to

empower for quantitative and qualitative examination individually.

199
The Data regarding the oil company outlets have been arranged

focused around the data got from the Public sector oil organizations.

The data as for the retail outlet sales are accessible in the public

space. Organizations are not eager to share other Strategic data as a

business system. While the data as for the name and their location

has been simpler to spot, it is hard to know the shareholding example

of such outlets. The motivation behind the pertinence of this data is to

comprehend if the service quality gauges change relying on the

shareholding of the company in the retail outlet operations. From the

prelim any studies it was clear that the holding examples in the

operation of the outlet has an exceptionally discriminating part in the

measurement of our study as a percentage of the elements can have

bigger change on the result of the study if the holding examples was

not same.

The key question was to distinguish such basic parameters, which

have an immediate linkage to the relationship exertions, offered by the

company. Resulting to this, it was consequently considered to choose

these two classifications independently from the data collection

reason. The determination was consequently made for company

claimed, company worked outlets and company possessed and dealer

worked outlets. Hence, from the rundown of in excess of 1000 outlets,

the determination was made for the Company claimed company

worked outlets and dealer worked outlets, which would be speaking to

the cross segment of the company operations along with comparable

200
parameters 'of operations. The avocation for picking for such a

classification of outlet for Public Sector Oil Company is that the outlet

should speak to the comparative set of values regardless of the

location of the outlet and the offering made by the company towards

the customer services does not change with location. It is

consequently, that these classes of outlets have been chosen for this

extent of the study.

Secondary Data - Data collection should be from the company's

internal records. The data was collected from Company's internal

records. The measure of the execution was the company's sales

numbers and also Market share to measure business execution.

Existing wellsprings of secondary data was tapped to supplement the

primary data identified with this expansive organization and different

organizations. In-house research directed by the organization was

likewise audited and co-related in the study.

The holders of the organization were arrived at with the viewpoint of

searching for agree to accumulate data additionally to elucidate the

inspiration driving the study. At the point when this was done, the

surveys were circled to the help staff. The pro in individual made

individual make up for lost time to ensure that the entire surveys were

assembled back. This was done in a joint exertion with a chief or line

boss in control. This methodology was done while ensuring the part

201
ordered ness of the gave data. In this portion, the improvement of the

survey is inspected.

The research instrument comprised of an overall characterized

organized questionnaire, which requested the reactions from the

respondents, with the assistance of the questioner. As referred to in

the literature, that questionnaire survey is a productive device to

evaluate the view of the individual customers on a specific subject.

Pilot testing of the measurement instrument was important to approve

the things and the entire scale. Despite the fact that a portion of the

key segments of the questionnaire have risen focused around the

archived 1itrature survey, yet the questionnaire was altogether new

for the study.

6.5 DATA SAMPLING

With a specific end goal to pick sampling units towards exact study of

the Customer Relationship management and its effect on business

execution, a few situations and skeletons have been proposed in the

literature.

The case might be the business execution of the company on the item

retailing in the free market through petrol pumps (Retail outlets in

company's records). Here additionally, the products supplied are 'me-

as well' class and value differentiation is not the determination

component. The customers visit these petrol pumps absolutely on the

202
bases of relationship, which the company's has constructed, or

attempting to manufacture with them over a period. The opposition is

complexed with the entrance of more private players, who are

attempting to differentiate themselves focused around the customer

services. In this environment, PSU oil organizations have embraced a

few activities to manufacture long-term loyalty, building customer

value, giving data, learning, and other value added services at their

petrol pumps, which have a bigger effect on the long-term relationship

with the customers. The data might be illustrative data for this

situation, which should spread a sufficient number of customers of

the company covering over the land zone of the nation.

The sampled data on the CRM exertions has been collected from an

agent cross area of respondents who were approached without any

bias or prequalification. The sampling must be stratified random

sampling as the respondents may have different encounters in co-

relating the volume and services relationships on an organized

questionnaire to finish up the business execution.

A stratified random sampling method was utilized as a part of this

study. Classes the systematic sampling method as a probability

sampling system. They bring up that an example, in a systematic

sampling method, is picked by selecting a random beginning stage

and afterward picking each Kth component in progression from the

sampling casing. It is pretty much like straightforward random

203
sampling, in that every component in the populace has a known and

equivalent shot of being chosen. The main difference is that just

reasonable specimens of size n can be drawn with a known and

equivalent probability of choice, while the remaining example of size n

has a zero probability of being chosen .

(Day, 2002)94(Day, 2002)94 contend that the precision of systematic

sampling can surpass that of basic random sampling when the

requesting of the components is identified with the qualities of

investment on the grounds that the specimen will be more illustrative

of the populace. For this situation, the List of the customers as gave

by the dealer and the company utilizing the records was arranged as a

part of an in sequential order request for each one Retail outlet and

afterward the examples were drawn. The point of this study is

additionally to have tests drawn from every strata of the customer

demography to speak to an uniform populace. Henceforth, the

systematic sampling method is fitting.

6.6 HYPOTHESIS

The research theories were defined concerning the particular

relationships in the theoretical structure. These relationships between

the variables are the significant concerns of the study. The study is

principally focused around the commence that the services by the oil

94Day,George S. and C. Van den Bulte (2002), “Superiority in Customer Relationship Management:
Consequences for Competitive Advantage and Performance,” working paper, Wharton School of
Business, University of Pennsylvania.
204
organizations are the -free variable- and fulfillment of the customers

at the retail outlet in different company is the ward variable.

Fulfillment of the customers is free variable, which is affected by the

components influencing their relationship with the company. The

execution of the company under study is the ward variable. In the

study, to land at the uniform base of the execution of the oil

organizations, sales and profit before premium and expenses, Sales

Volume and Market Share. The dependendent variables as

characterized in the study are autonomous of one another. The

speculations as specified below are intelligent of this reason and are

tested in point of interest in the ensuing chapters.

The researcher suggest that performance and productivity of service

station is related to different potential variables: the owner/managers,

the station, location and the competition-/competitors.

H1: A manager/owner becomes a dealer service station years of

experience before are positively correlated with performance and labor

productivity.

H2: Build-up area (size) in square feet of the service

stations is positively correlated with service

stations performance and labor productivity.

205
H3: There is a positive relationship between

performance and labor productivity and

inventory of non-fuel products in the service

station.

H4: The number of islands is positively correlated with service stations

performance and labor productivity.

H5: The traffic density where the service stations

situated will be positively correlated with service

stations performance and labour productivity.

H6: There is a positive relationship between service station

location and performance and labour productivity.

6.7 THE QUESTIONNAIRE

One of the prerequisite to design a good questionnaire is deciding

what is to be measured. There are basically various approaches to

developing initial indicators in questionnaire design. These are -

1. Using observation or unstructured interview.

2. The Customer Profile.

3. The factor important in the Fuel buying process.

206
4. The demographic profile.

Questionnaire items for this research were initially developed based

on measures developed in previous researches made by researchers.

The final version of the questionnaire items however were modified to

fit this particular context of research and thus they had gone through

pilot testing and evaluation.

On the other hand, before the questionnaires were developed, a series

of personal interviews were conducted with oil company executives

and academicians. Three criteria were applied in developing the

questionnaires, included: 1) test administration between 10 to

15minutes, (2) elimination of variables with apparent low predictive

value, and (3) a questionnaire easily understood by the service station

managers or owners.

The questions have been kept to the minimum as possible, so that the

respondents will not find it difficult and boring to answer all of them.

To increase reliability, the questionnaire was carefully developed

through two pretests and checked twice by the supervisor. One of the

major concerns of the study was response rate. From discussion of

availability, response rate was satisfacted. On the other hand, the

questionnaire length was limited to increase the response rate and at

the end the trade-off was made.

207
The Pilot Study - every questionnaire should be pretested. For this

reason, the primary pretesting was done.Thepreliminary questionnaire

designed for the pilot test were sent personally to the various service

stations at surrounding area.

The interview was conducted by using the structured questionnaire.

In the testing, they were asked to responds to what they thought

about the questions and the questionnaires a whole. Any difficulties

such as problems of understanding the questions, prognosis of

possible reactions to the questions and other suggestions for

improvement found during the test was taken seriously and used

them to modify the questionnaire.

208
 CHAPTER – 7

RESEARCH ANALYSIS

7.1 INTRODUCTION

At the point when data begins to stream in, all the attention turned to

how the data is to be researched. On the off chance that it is

completed adequately, the examination is thought to be done. Data

availability joins the methodology of adjusting, coding and data door

which ensures that exactness of data is expert.

By then the data was dismembered using substance dismemberment.

For the quantitative canalization, the information was specifically

accumulated from the surveys, which were by then coded and created

for dismemberment. All the data was collected and the expert

prepared a conclusion, recommendation and proposal for future

study.

The data collected through above was accumulated and properly

classified. The dissection of quantitative and qualitative data was

carried out utilizing pattern examination and different measurable

procedures, remembering general objectives of the research. To

approve the hypothesis of the research, data has been investigated

diagnostically to land at a positive or negative execution of the

organization because of CRM practices. At long last, the discoveries

209
from the primary sources and also secondary assets were used

keeping in view the research objectives and sub objectives to touch

base at some distinct conclusion. The data investigation started with

an exploratory component dissection to test the relationship between

the watched variables and the underlying develops variables.

The sample was analyzed with different statistical techniques briefly

mentioned hereunder:

Multiple Regression -

Albright, Winston and Zappe (2003, p. 548)95 define regression as a

"study of the relationship between variables". It is a useful tool in

business since its application covers a variety of situations.

Conversely, multiple regression includes more explanatory variables in

the regression equation. Keller and Warrack (2003)96 state that

generally preference is for inclusion of as many independent variables

as possible that are believed to affect the dependent variable. For the

proposed research, all the elements of Market Orientation - location,

accessibility, brand position - are independent variables, whereas the

number of times people visit the brand shops and a particular brand

shop are dependent variables and are affected by the independent

variables.

95Albright, C.S. Winston, W.L. and Zappe, C. (2003) Data Analysis & Decision Making.2nd
Edition. California: Thomson - Brooks/Cole.
96Keller, G. and Warrack, B. (2003) Statistics for Management and Economics. 6th Edition.
California: Thomson - Brooks/Cole.

210
From above discussion multiple regression was chosen for analyzing

the survey data in this study. The advantage of this model is that it

allows the systematic consideration of a variety of variables in a single

framework and can provide a quantitative assessment of the relative

impact of the variables (Ghost andMcLafferty 1987). It is computerized

for speedier, more flexible analysis, rapid testing (Curry and Moutinho

1992) and easier to interpret (Coates et al 1995). Moreover, according

to Rogers (1992: page 6), this model has six key strengths as a tool:

> It provides an objective discipline for evaluation by different

market analysts. This is important for successful delegation,

particularly in the larger retail firms.

> From a strictly statistical point of view, the technique is said to

have a known error rate. In theory, regression analysis does

provide a plus and minus error factor but, in practice, it does not.

This is because of the potential existence of important variables

outside the model.

> The method has a particular value to retailers who have a

segmented customer appeal since the key demographic variables

relevant to the retailer are identified and analyzed by the

technique.

> It provides an evaluation of existing store performances through

residual analysis.
211
> Once developed, it is very easy to use.

> The method has a particular value to retailers who have a

segmented customer appeal since the key demographic variables

relevant to the retailer are identified and analyzed by the

technique.

> It provides an evaluation of existing store performances through

residual analysis.

> Once developed, it is very easy to use.

(i) For developing the model in this study, existing service stations

are statistically compared with measures of those variables

expected to influence the level of performance and productivity,

either positively or negatively. The result of this analysis is the

development of a linear, statistical equation.

For the purpose of this study, this model will take the following form:

Y = f(M, S, L, C)

Where Y is performance or productivity measurements, and the M, S,

L and C are independent variables represent the manager/owner

characteristics, store characteristics, location characteristics and

competition characteristics. Furthermore, the development of this

model is based on two assumptions: (1) that the performance and

212
productivity of the service stations is significantly affected by the four

characteristics mentioned above and (2) that these underlying factors

can be isolated by systematic analysis.

There are two alternative approaches to implementing this model

(Theil 1971 in Adam et al 1993 and Ghosh and Mc Lafferty 1987). A

common procedure is to start with a large number of potential

variables and then use "stepwise" regression or other similar methods

to identify the variables most highly related to performance and

productivity. The second approach is to first select a small number of

variables likely to form a significant subset and directly enter these

into the model to measure their relative impact on performance and

productivity. The set of variables to be included can be ascertained

from past studies or represent the analyst's judgment and

management considerations (Ghosh and Mc Lafferty 1987). However,

principal component or factor analysis techniques can also be used to

select the variables to be included in the regression model.

In the researcher's opinion, using a statistical model approach was

more useful than judgment because not every variable found

significant in one survey or management considerations can also be

significant in other surveys or organizations. This view was supported

by Adam et at (1993). They said that the operation and maintenance

of the statistical model should be relatively easy. Whereas, running a

regression with so many variables would not have provided any

213
degrees of freedom (Hall 1994) because each time a variable is added

to the equation, a degree of freedom is lost from the residual sum of

squares (Norusis 1993). Due to this, the standard error may increase

and the test of overall regression decreases and this will effect the

"best" possible model for the test.

In the researcher's opinion, for this study the second approach using

statistical method will be more appropriate to be used in this analysis.

For that reason, two approaches were adopted. Firstly, variables were

tested using bivariate correlation to identify or to seek guidance which

one of the variables was most important and associated with

performance and productivity. Secondly, a stepwise regression

analysis was employed in order to explore the relationships between

the significant variables and the performance and productivity

measures. This approach was adopted from work done

7.2 BACKGROUND OF THE SAMPLE

Based on the research hypotheses, respondents from

managers/owners of petroleum retailing industry were questioned

with 30 questions to indicate their performance and productivity in

the industry and their opinions about the overall industry as a whole.

For the analysis of control variables (mostly demographic), all

respondents were asked to indicate their demographic profiles. The

summaries of the variables are shown in Table 7.1. Our final sample

214
consisted of atotal of 80 managers/owners made up of 48

owner/owner cum manager (which can be consider an entrepreneurs)

and 32 managers which employed by the owners itself or other

organizations.

The mean age of the sample as a whole is 40 years old; the youngest

among the sample is 25 and the oldest being 56. Of the total sample,

74 or 92.5 per cent is male and only 6 or 7.5 per cent is female.

For the service stations, the mean age of the station is 5 years old. As

previously mentioned, the sample came from the national oil company

which have a very short history in the industry.

215
Table 7.1 : Analysis Showing the Background of the Sample.

7.3 MULTIVARIATE CORRELATION AND REGRESSION ANALYSIS

ON THE VARIABLES.

In order to explore the multivariate relationships between the

performance measures and the surrogate variables, and to test

hypotheses detailed in the research literature, the data were further

subjected to multiple correlation and regression analysis. This

216
statistical technique was chosen because it allows the association of

each independent variable with the performance indicator to be

examined while controlling for the effects of the other independent

variables. The multivariate regression equations presented below were

calculated using the 'stepwise method', and the technique starts by

regressing the variables with highest correlation against the

dependent variable. A new independent variable is added or deleted at

each step in order that the null hypothesis of no explanation can be

rejected. The stepwise method was chosen because it is more

susceptible to sample-specific error than the regular multiple

regression. It has greater potential for capitalization on change and it

can produce results that are specific to the sample employed (Hall

1994)97.

When a regression analysis was run for VOLITRE with 0.05 as the

limit for variable inclusion, only five variables entered the equation.

However, when the limit was relaxed to 0.10, there are six variables

was entered the step-wise regression equation. The results also

improve R2 from 0.84 to 0.86 and reduce the standard error from 0.78

to 0.75. From this test and discussion in section 7.3.1 above, the 0.10

level of significance was the selected level for the inclusion of

significant independent surrogate variables. Furthermore, this level of

significance was chosen because this study used a small sample and

97Hall,
Graham (1994) "Factors Distinguishing Survivors From Failures Amongst Small Firms in the UK
Construction Sector" Journal of Management. Studies Vol.31, No 5, September, pp 737-760.
217
the researcher was afraid that some of the important variables will be

excluded if using the higher level of significance such as 0.01 or 0.05

level of significance (as shown from the test mentioned above).

Moreover, a few retail researchers especially in petroleum retailing

such as Ingene and Brown (1987) and Acar (1993) also used this level

in their study.

Volume of litre sold of the service stations (LGVOLITRE)-

The present question to be addressed is: how well does each of the

variables perform in predicting performance? This issue was examined

via multiple regression equations in this section. Equation 1, below, is

based on the 19 surrogate variables found to be statistically

associated with volume of litre sold at the 0.01, 0.05 and 0.10 level of

significance. Equation 1 which was contains the seven independent

surrogate variables - BAYS, EXPEFROL, EXPMONTH, HSTAY,

INVENTORY, OSHIPS and QUALITY is statistically significant and has

a high adjusted R2 value of + 0.91. This equation then explains 91 per

cent of the variation of volume of litres sold among service stations in

this study. The adjusted R2 is felt to be abetter indicator than

significance level as an accurate description of the value of the

equation (Hand et al 1987). This also indicate the amount of

dependent variable where the variation was not explained. In this case

only 9 per cent. The values for R2 and adjusted R2 are large in this

findings and if compared with other value reported in the literature,

218
the value is relatively very high. However according to Morphet

(1991)98, the high value for Redoes not mean that large errors will not

occur. As mentioned earlier, after taking the logarithm of the

dependent variable, there is no evidence of a lack of fit in the

equation.

Those variables having a positive effect on volume of litres sold are

number of bays (BAYS), expenditure per month (EXPMONTH), hours

stay in business (HSTAY), inventory of non-fuel product (INVENTORY)

and quality of services offered (QUALITY). One (HSTAY) of the positive

variables is manager/owner variables, three (BAYS, EXPMONTH and

INVENTORY) are firm variables and one (QUALITY) is a competitive

variable. An increase in any of these variables is expected to increase

the volume of litres sold. The amount of increase expected would differ

for each variable on the basis of the regression coefficients.

The regression coefficients also show the numerical relationship

between each variable and performance. They show the nature and

magnitude of impact that each variable has on the performance

measure. For example, the volume of litres sold model shows that a

MR6 increase in expenses in a month is estimated to raise volume in

litres sold by about 10,000 litres. Similarly, as mentioned earlier, an

98Morphet, Clive S (1990/1) "Applying Multiple Reg ression Analysis to the Forecasting of Grocery Store
Sales: An Application and Critical Appraisal" The International Review of Retail. Distribution and Cos
turner Research.Vol. I, No.3, pp 329-351.

219
increase of five hours in the business is expected to increase volume

of litres by about 100 litres.

Equation 1:

Volume of litre sold by surrogate variables (all nineteen significant

variables at p = 0.01, 0.05 and 0.10)

Multiple R = 0.96 Adjusted R2 = 0.91

Standard error of the estimate = 0.26 n = 40

Note: For the equations the figures in the parentheses are t value

* Significant at the 0.05 level of significance

** Significant at the 0.01 level of significance

*** Significant at the 0.001 level of significance

220
It can be inferred from equation 1 that service stations which have

sufficient number of bays, have adequate number of inventory ofnon-

petrol product, have same level of quality with competitors, with

maintaining the expenses, registered with proper legal entity and

having an owner or manager which worked hard and have a few years

experience in petroleum retailing will record the highest rates of

volume of litre sold and can "stay" in this industry.

Volume of sales of non-fuel products of the service station

(LGSALESNP)-

Equation 2 is based on the eighteen surrogate variables found to be

statistically associated with volume of sales of non-fuel products a t

the 0.01, 0.05 and 0.10 level of significance. This equation has a high

adjusted R2 value of + 0.67 and a standard error of 0.78. Five

independent surrogate variables are stated in equation 2: AGEM,

AGEST, BUILDUP, CAPITAL and STAFFNOW. This indicates that the

equation presented above explains 67 per cent of the variance in sales

of non-fuel product for service stations in this study.

Equation 2:

Volume of sales of non-fuel products by surrogate variables (all 18 atp

= 0.01 , 0.05 and 0.10)

221
Multiple R = 0.84 Adjusted R2 = 0.67

Standard error of estimate = 0.78 n = 40

Note: For the equations the figures in the parentheses are t value

* Significant at the 0.05 level of significance

** Significant at the 0.01 level of significance

*** Significant at the 0.001 level of significance

Average number of employee per year in business of service

station (LCEMPGRO) -

In this measurement, the average annual increase in employment was

used to measure the "success" of service station. This measurement

was different from the previous two mentioned above, because this

measurement was categorized into subjective measurement while the

previous two were in objective measurement. The reason for using

both measurement is to compare which one can describe the "best

measurement" for the performance. In this analysis, the researcher

222
takes a set of number of employee per age of station as the dependent

variables and included age of station as one of the independent

variables. However, this situation may create

serious statistical problems. The following approach was developed to

overcome the problem where some modification was made on the

model. The new model is of the form:

where X] is the age of station became the constant in the equation.

Equation 3 is based on the fifteen surrogate variables found to be

statistically associated with LGEMPGRO at the 0.10, 0.05 and 0.01

level of significance. This equation is statisticallyIn this equation, the

number of islands has the strongest effect, followed by the number of

employees. Others, although are important but showed little effect on

the equation. Number of employees again shows an effect in this

model.

It can be inferred from equation 3 that to be "success" in this

industry, the manager or owner must have enough experience before

becoming the dealer, have sufficient capital to run the business, a n

adequate number of islands and enough number of employees.

223
This study summarizes the findings and models empirically tested in

equation 1, 2 and 3 and also shows the important variables (order

entered) which had the greatest impact on the three performance

measures. The regression equation characteristics of volume of litre

sold indicate an R2 of 0.91 which explains 91 per cent of the variation

of volume of litre sold among service stations in this study. Using the

same impact of the equation (based on which variable enters the

equation first), there are seven variables in the equation. The variable

with the greatest effect are number of bays (0.26), type of ownership (-

0.31), amount of expensive per month (6.0 X 10-5), amount of non-fuel

inventory (4.0 X 10-5), number of year experience in petroleum

industry (-0.05) and so on in a descending order as shown in Table

7.2.

Equation 3: Average annual increase in employment by surrogate

variables (15 variables at p = 0.01 , 0.05 and 0.10)

Multiple R = 0.90 Adjusted R2 = 0.81

Standard error of estimate = 0.19 n = 40

224
Note: For the equations the figures in the parentheses are t value

* Significant at the 0.05 level of significance

** Significant at the 0.01 level of significance

*** Significant at the 0.001 level of significance

Table 7.2 : Summary of variables in Performance of Service Station.

225
The regression equation characteristics of average growth in

employment indicate an R2 of 0.81 which explains 81 per cent of the

variation of volume of litres sold among service stations in this study.

Using the same impact of the equation (based on which variable

enters the equation first), there are four variables in the equation. The

variables with the greatest effect are number of years experience

before become dealer (0.004), number of staffs (0.018), number of

islands (- 0.04), amount of capital invested (7.0 X 10-8) and number of

years experience before become dealer (0.004).

From the above table, number of employees (STAFFNOW) and amount

of capital invested (CAPITAL) are found to be important variables

which can give impact on performance in both objective and subjective

measurement. This finding supported the study done by Abdullah

(1993) and Bates (1995), found that employees and capital was a

highly significant determinant of firm survival. The important of both

variables can be highlighted by comments of the respondents in this

study. One respondent stated, "Normally, limited capital is our main

problem and good employees was very hard to find." While another

respondent commented, "Getting workers, and getting them to stay

on, heads the list of problems". "My turnover is high and these

workers only use this as a temporary stepping stone," agrees another

dealer.

226
Finally, the research analysis presented in this study indicate that

bothExternal and internal environment facing by petroleum

retailingIndustry played significant roles in the performance of

servicestations.

7.4 ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESES TESTING

The set of hypotheses concerning the impact of independent variables

on performance in retailing. There are thirteen hypotheses already

developed earlier. The hypotheses are divided into two groups: the

internal environmental factors (manager and store) and the external

environmental factors (location and competition). The former reflect

the "controllable factors" and the latter include "uncontrollable

factors". One of the purpose of an exploration study was to establish a

basis for future rigorous hypothesis testing. Using these constructs,

we developed other regression models to examine the impact of

internal and external environmental on performance. As mentioned

earlier in this research, the first approach suggested byGhosh and Me

Lafferty (1987) will be used in this section. The stepwise regression

will be replaced by 2-stage regression in order to put all variables in

one equation. The variables used in this section were selected by

using judgment and management consideration and were found to be

very important variables which impact on performance from the

previous studies.

227
Hypotheses testing for internal environmental variables-

The relationship between firm performance and productivity and the

independent variables (internal and external environmental variables)

are modeled as follow:

Yt is the performance measure (VOLITRE, SALENP and EMPGRO). Xn

are independent variable for the firm. Yt* is the subjective

performance measure (managers/owners were asked the

overallperformance measure (managers/owners were asked the overall

performance of the firm in recent year by Likert scale 1 = very

satisfactory to 5 = very unsatisfactory). Jacobson (1990) argues that

models investigating the performance relationship may be misspecified

because they fail to account for the impact of 'unobservable' effects on

performance. In order to account for such 'unobservable' effects

suggested by Jacobson (1990), the researcher includes the valuation

from owners/managers themselves on their own stations. The

researcher assumed that only owners and managers themselves knew

'exactly' about their own performance in absence of any other

measures. These views was supported by Tan and Litschert (1995)99.

99Justin and Litschert, Robert J. (1995)"Environment-Strategy Relationship and Its

Performance Implications: An Empirical Study ofThe Chinese Electronics Industry" StrategicManagement
Journal. Vol. 15, pp 1-20.

228
They said that the managers have knowledge of comparable firms'

performance. In studies done by Birley and Westhead (1990), Adam et

al (1993) and Tan and Litschert (1995),they included these type of

variable because they believed the manager only had extensive first-

hand knowledge of each store and its environment that could not be

fully captured by other variables used in the model. On the other

hand, the validity of this procedure has been established by previous

studies.

In order to highlight the importance of the external and internal

environmental effect on performance, the researcher entered the

external and internal variables separately first and lastly both together

in the model. By these approaches, the researcher estimated twelve

regression models to investigate the relationship/hypotheses between

these independent and dependent variables. Nine of theseHypothesis

1 predicted that number of year's experience before become a dealer

will be positively related to firm performance. Results indicate that

experience is positive but not significantly related to EMPGRO.

However results also indicate that therelationship fails to reach

statistical significance in both VOLITRE and SALENP model and is

negatively related. While arguments have been presented from a

positive and negative relationship in prior studies, our results

suggesting a lack of relationship between experience and performance

are perhaps due to the sample consisting of managers from the oil

company which have experience in the industry but in managing the

229
poor performance stations. Moreover, most of the respondents have

experience from unrelated fields such as experience in teaching, army,

civil service and only a few have experience in small business.

Furthermore, managing the service station is their first experience in

business for the majority of the respondents.

Table 7.3 Summary of Measures and Hypotheses

Hypothesis 2 predicted that buildup area of the service station will be

positively related to performance. This finding fails to support this

hypothesis because many service stations cannot fully utilize the area

due to lack of capital or their plans was rejected by the oil company to

develop further the surrounding area of the stations. One dealer said

that, "My plan to increase services such as mart or garage was

rejected because they (oil company) was not trust my capability to run

230
the project. My thinking was based on business thinking and the

officer's (oil company's staff) thinking was based on administration".

Hypothesis 3 predicted that the amount of inventory will be related

positively to firm performance. Given higher the amount of inventory

will create more sale in petroleum and non-petroleum products. The

oil company did not persuade their dealers to open the mini mart or

other related services, whereas the other competitors already done.

For the moment, the oil company itself did not have any concrete plan

to increase sales by introducing more non-fuel products which was

found very significant.

Hypothesis 4 predicted that number of islands will be positively

related to performance. This variable is positive but fail to reach

significance in the VOLITRE and SALENP models. However this

variable is negatively and significantly related to EMPGRO model. In

other words, as many islands provided by the dealer, the dealer has to

employ more staff and at the end it will increase the overall cost. The

turnover is one of the main problems faced by the dealer. One dealer

explained, "The workers using station employment as a stepping stone

while waiting for the more convenience jobs". Thus, our findings do

not provide some support for Hypothesis 4.

231
Hypotheses testing for external environmental variables-

Hypothesis 5 predicted that number of traffics will be positively

related to performance. Given that more number of traffics flow in

front of the station, more change there will be patronizing the station.

Thus, contrary to prior arguments regarding number of traffics (Jones

and Simmons 1990), the results found here indicated that the number

of traffics was negatively and significantly related to performance in

SALENP model but not significant in the VOLITRE and EMPGRO.

However, this finding supported the work done by Robinson and

Hedsen (1973), who found that the traffic flow is not significant

withperformance. Thus, our findings do not provide any support for

Hypothesis 5.

Hypothesis 6 predicted that location will be positively related to

VOLITRE, SALENP and EMPGRO. Our results indicate a negative

relationship between location and all the performance. However, it

fails to reach statistical significance. The lack of significance of this

variable is perhaps due to the location types are broad surrogates.

They may reflect (on average) different levels of competitive, intensity,

different levels of trade population density or any number of other

things. Future research should attempt to measure location variables

better. Thus, our findings do not provide any support for Hypothesis

6.

232
 A Summary of the findings for all hypotheses is presented in Table

7.4.

Table 7.4 Results of Hypotheses.

Note:

*** significant with level of 0.001

** significant with level of 0.05

* significant with level of 0.10

233
 CHAPTER - 8

CONCLUSIONS

Refinery is an energy intensive industry, where electricity, steam, fuel

oil & gas are used as the main sources of energy. Basic source of

above forms of energy is hydrocarbon (petroleum

oil) therefore optimization of energy is basically conservation of

hydrocarbon, which in turn contributes in minimizing fuel and loss

(OFL) and thereby improves profitability of the company. Most of

energy optimization schemes need only systematic study and

continuous effort of improvement without or with little cost

involvement. Therefore it is recommended to implement energy

optimization schemes in petroleum sectors in order to bring

improvement in the profitability. Maximizing sells of products can

increase profit; of course, the selling price must be higher

than the production costs. However maximizing capacity utilization of

the plants can maximize volumes of products.

Energy companies will need to build sound investor and analyst

relationships and convince capital markets that they have clear

strategies to succeed if they wish to avoid lower share prices. Retailing

activities will separate from back office service provision as well as

from network service provision.

234
Retail returns on electricity will probably be low, particularly if used

as a loss leader by multi-product new entrants looking to maximize

the lifetime value of their customers.

The oil and gas sector is fairly well developed in India, and is poised to

contribute large share to India’s energy basket over the next 15–20

years. A conservative estimate of 7 per cent growth in the Indian

economy is expected to approximately double India’s per capita energy

consumption over the next 20 years. Since energy demand and

economic growth are almost interlinked, the Indian oil and gas sector,

which provides the country with a significant portion of its energy

requirements, has been identified as a key metric that will drive future

GDPgrowth.

To cope up with the increasing demand, the government has allowed

100 per centFDI in the oil and gas sector, enabling some large

partnerships such as theUS$ 7.2 billion deal between BP and Reliance

Industries. In order to further aid the development of the sector, the

government introduces legislations such as the NELP to enable

companies to bid for exploration rights, and encourage private sector

participation. The participation of the private sector is expected to

bring in monetary resources and technological capabilities, especially

in the field of deep sea exploration while simultaneously reducing the

dominance of PSUs in the country’s competitive landscape.

235
This year’s Union Budget is expected to have a mixed impact on the

sector, as the government has increased on crude oil production by

approximately 80 percent, thereby reducing its under recoveries. On

the other hand, the government has also exempted the basic customs

duty on the import of liquefied natural gas for power generation for

two years, and made oil and gas pipelines eligible for viability gap

funding, consequently aiding the midstream segment and thereby

greatly benefiting the sector.

We’ve conducted an in-depth analysis of the Indian Petrol market,

specifically retail market –with reference to a government policy and

changes made in it over the years; the past and present consumption

and production pattern of petrol in India and the quantity of import of

petrol and its effect on balance of payment position of India.

The purpose is also to understand the present changes which are

taking place in the Indian Petrol Market and the impact of these

changes on the marketing strategies of the companies, and to finda

way forward by taking Indian Oil Corporations a base. The study aims

at a comprehensive examination of Indian Oil Corporation’s marketing

strategies and at critically analyzing the fitness of the strategies in the

present scenario and also the long-term viability of its strategies.

The study also aims to trace the trends in the petroleum marketing in

Indian context, i.e., to understand the changing dynamics of

236
marketing in the Indian petroleum industry, taking a case of Indian

Oil Corporation.

The domain of customer relationship management stretches out into

numerous zones of marketing and key choices. Its late

conspicuousness is encouraged by the union of a few different

paradigms of marketing and by corporate activities that have created

around the subject of collaboration and the cooperation of

authoritative units and their stakeholders, including customers. CRM

alludes to a thoughtfully wide marvel of business action, and if the

sensation of collaboration and joint effort with customers turns into

the overwhelming paradigm of marketing practice and research, CRM

can possibly rise as the overwhelming point of view of marketing.

From the corporate execution perspective, CRM ought to not be

misjudged to just mean a software result usage venture. Building

relationships with customers is a principal business of each venture,

and it obliges an all encompassing technique and methodology to

make it fruitful.

From a scholastic viewpoint a paramount inquiry is whether CRM on

the other hand relationship marketing will turn into a decently

regarded, detached, and unique train in marketing. Our conviction is

that it unquestionably has the potential, and we wish that it would

happen in light of the fact that marketing will profit immensely from

it. The lessons gained from past deliberations, both effective and

237
unsuccessful, of different marketing domains that have attempted to

get to be trains give a decent guide of how to create CRM and

relationship marketing into a different order. As an intercession

system, it would be very alluring for relationship marketing and CRM

researchers to sort out their own particular affiliation and their own

particular insightful diary.

Customer Relationship Management is an exceptionally wide and

broad field. This subject can't be managed in sufficient detail in a

report of this size. It is the methodology of building long haul,

trusting, win-win relationships with customers, distributors, dealers

also suppliers. Nonetheless, we have constrained the extent of this

report to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and focused on

the methodology of creating, keeping up, improving and

commercializing customer relationships. The idea of CRM is gradually

yet clearly developing in India, where on one hand numerous

companies have taken a few activities and attained a ton of

accomplishment around there, while others are awakening its

difficulties, because of the developing business sector situation.

Customer Relationship Management is currently offering approach to

'Experiential marketing', where the experience stems right from the

buy stage, to utilizing the item, to dumping the utilized item.

Consequently, it is not only the unmistakable and immaterial profits,

anyhow likewise the general experience which impact the buy choice.

238
Today, a brand's obligation is 'need satisfaction' as well as 'experience

satisfaction'.

Defense' on delicate POL items. On the other hand, from the

perspective of the fiscal deficit, the impact of a tax lessening without

expanding the subsidy and the impact of expanding the subsidy

without touching the tax rates would be the same for any given

administered cost of these items. Also, contentions for diminishing the

petro-subsidy bill brought about by the Central government or

diminishing the sales tax rate on petro-items implies essentially

shifting of fiscal deficit from the centra; to the state exchequers. I

might want to contend that regardless of the fact that the fiscal deficit

as an extent to GDP increments somewhat to keep up residential cost

steadiness of POL items, we ought to permit that increment so as to

minimize misfortunes. The fiscal deficit does not so much cause

expansion or 'gathering out' of private speculation by raising the

investment rates, in any case.

However, the policy of oil value deregulation even with climbing global

cost of oil, would most likely have direct negative impacts on

development, swelling and 'macroeconomic steadiness'. The extent

that the inquiry of financing the additional deficit is concerned, the

RBI (Reserve Bank of India) can buy new oil bonds and repurchase a

percentage of the old oil securities in the auxiliary business and

indirectly monetize it.

239
The macroeconomic effect of monetization would be precisely the same

as a decrease in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), which is continuously

brought down under the current financial policy administration. In

the event that monetization is as contended (by monetarists)

inflationary, then that is genuine additionally for the increment in

remote trade saves due to inflow of remote capital. For a developing

economy, higher development rate guarantees higher tax revenue and

also makes bigger fiscal space for more subsidies as an extent to GDP,

making it supportable.

The analysis of the primary data reveals that the customers see a

significant difference among the three public sector oil companies on

the relationship factors. The mean scores for each company is listed

below:

Table 8.1 Mean Scores of the Three Companies of CRM factors

While the customers see a significant difference among the three

companies on all the impacting factors arrived as a result of the factor

analysis. It implies that in the NCR region, the customer feels that the

company 1 is considered better regulation. It means that whenever

240
new products filling to the enwer generation of fuels comes out in the

market, customers will first try to explore the same with company 1.

Also company responds to the customer request more promptly

compared to the other 2 companies. The effort made by the company

on reliability, appearance, trust, regulation and VAS have been

recognized well by the customers. Company 1 needs to focus more on

the appearance dimension as the outlets are perceived to the lacking

this dimension by the customer visiting company1. There is a need for

the company 2 to work on all the five dimension compared to

company 1 and 3. The reasons for visiting the outlets would be based

on the ranking parameters which 76% of the customers have voded in

favor of the the convenient travel plan. However, given the choice on

their route, the customers would switch their preference in favor of

another company. Company 3 is marginally lower on all the factor

mean scores compared to company 1, and a small effort by the

company shall push ahead of company 1 in the NCR region.

While the mean scores for overall company are different, however,

looking at the mean scores of the individual retail outlet, it is observed

that on all the five dimension, there is a difference among the outlets.

Some of the outlets of company 1 are lacking compared to company 3

and also company 2 is ahead of the other companies on individual

dimension. The conclusion therefore has to be seen on individual

241
parameters for each company, and company’s can drawn inference

about the needs of the customers.

Comparison of Indicators among Respondents of three Companies on

various dimension clearly indicates, that the customers are able to

differentiate the companies based on the factors of relationship. It was

observed that the customers do not see significant difference in sales

of the outlets and measures the company’s performance based on the

value they get from the company, rather than looking at the sales,

which each outlets is doing.

Marketing has dependably been considered as a device for markets

with blemished rivalry, where numerous sellers battle for consumers,

they have separated items and heaps of advertising and sales

promotion different costs may likewise predominate in these business

sectors (Plamer, 2004). Selling of petrol in India was anything other

than not about marketing.

Since, none of the attributes of Indian Petroleum Business of that time

concurs with the qualities of markets with defective rivalry. For

instance – amid that time, the petrol selling companies require not

battle for consumers and they (petrol selling companies) advertised

precisely the same item to the consumers (trademark of an item) and

that too at the same cost. In other words, the history of marketing of

petrol in India was characterized and described by great government

242
control what's more protectionism. The marketing capacity, as well as

all parts of petroleum business, (investigation, refining, dispersion or

selling) were strictly managed and ensured. At the same time, as of

late a huge paradigm shift is taking put in the way petrol is constantly

showcased (Anurag, 2007) .

The study additionally means to follow the patterns in the petroleum

conveyance in Indian setting, i.e., to comprehend the changing motion

of marketing and dispersion in the Indian petroleum industry, taking

an instance of value and request nexus. The above study is simply a

depiction of the sizzle that the petrol disseminating industry is

experiencing, it is this critical change in the situation of petrol

dissemination in India, which has pulled in a considerable measure of

consideration of the policy producers in India. It's unverifiable that

what the future sees yet one thing is beyond any doubt that marketing

and dissemination of petrol is tranquil a testing errand for policy

producers, Omcs and government.

Reinartz, Krafft,Hoyer ( 2004) Studied the Customer Relationship

Management Process: Its Measurement and Impact on Performance

and identified the goals of their study to: (1) to conceptualize and

operationalize the process of CRM implementation, ( 2) to determine

whether the implementation of CRM processes is positively linked to

performance, and ( 3) to identify some key moderators of the

relationship . They formalized CRM process in terms of three primary

243
dimensions: relationship initiation, maintenance, and termination so

that results of CRM processes can be compared across companies and

research studies. This index can also be employed as a guide for

further research. On the other hand, their conceptualization

highlights the importance of separating the three dimensions of CRM

processes, because performance may vary at each stage. Mere

examination of CRM processes at a general level does not capture the

detailed nature of relationship management. A key goal of further

research could be to examine factors that influence performance at

each stage in more detail.

Keeping the above discussion in mind the framework developed by us

in the current research was based on the five dimension, The CRM

processes of the Public Sector oil companies were clearly flowing a

common goal of Reliability, Appearance, Regulation, Trust and Value

added services. The similarity therefore in our research and as

proposed by earlier work on performance are collaborating. It was also

observed that the performance of the company were varying at every

state of these CRM process and on a overall scale doe not guide a

general rule of relationship management. In order to have some

linkage with the performance of the retail outlet and in turn with the

company, it is necessary to build the relationships on these variables.

The earlier studies indicated that if a proper organizational structure

and incentives are not in place, it may be difficult for CRM processes

244
to produce the desired effects. Thus, it is not enough for a company

simply to implement CRM processes. It must organize itself and install

a reward structure to support these processes. This also suggests that

organization variables need to play a key role in further research

efforts that attempt to understand the performance impact of CRM.

The performance indicators also auggest that the two variables

reliability and trust only contribute 17% to the performance and

therefore, organizational efforts must be placed in order to identify

and then understand the impact of other variables.

In this study we have outlined how companies can distinguish

whether they can consolidate sponsorship with CRM. This study has

highlighted the potential for CRM projects to be utilized to power

sponsorship exercises better. Subsequently, there requirements to be

extra research to inspect a various scope of issues. Any examination

of the adequacy of CRM projects additionally needs to look into a

scope of potential directing components including: the impression of

truthfulness, association with reason and item, saw affect on the

reason. Accordingly any trial would need to be sufficiently perplexing

to look at or at any rate control for these elements.

The examination study demonstrates that CRM decidedly affect on

understanding consumers furthermore focusing on, customer

satisfaction and customer maintenance. Top to bottom meetings with

vehicles companies have uncovered that in practice database

245
marketing encourages, customer understanding and focusing on,

which is the base of CRM; Internet could bring upgraded customer

satisfaction to CRM however coordinated intelligent marketing gave

that customer private data is decently overseen, and henceforth

certain level of customer maintenance.

Managerial ramifications could be drawn from this study. Firstly, to

see consumers, which is a standout amongst the most critical parts of

CRM, companies may apply machine database to get customer

inclination data all the more proficiently, and consequently to target

all the more precisely. What ought to be noted is that how to let

customers control their data and how endeavor can shield it from

outsiders need to be taken into cautious record with a specific end

goal to ensure buyer security to manufacture their trust. What's more,

companies can make coordinated relationship with consumers by

using the data gathered, i.e., to give custom-made offerings to

consumers as per their inclination also needs. In this manner

customer satisfaction could be upgraded, which will bring about

positive verbal and certain level of customer maintenance. Be that as

it may, companies need to remember that CRM does not prompt

customer loyalty constantly, different variables interfacing with

loyalty, for example, purchaser purchasing conduct, need to be taken

into record at the point when shaping CRM technique.

246
Speculations connected to CRM have been established in

satisfaction/dissatisfaction hypotheses what's more speculations for

customer whining conduct that has been proposed by customary

advertisers. This study additionally examined models for customer

satisfaction and whining conduct that analyze variables influencing

customer relationship management. This study concentrates on the

how to boost customer satisfaction for effective CRM on the grounds

that it gives hints in respect to what managerial progressions may

have prompted distinctive and more attractive practices, raising the

issue of customer loyalty nearsightedness. This nearsightedness

originates from accepting that purchaser conduct might be made and

managed in and by itself without watchful respect to its underlying

premise on the customer satisfaction side, restoring the long-standing

marketing difficulty of demeanor and behavioral measures, and the

amount mentality impact or anticipate conduct. This study

additionally inspected studies that tended to the significance of

customer dissentions that additionally go past the customer

satisfaction idea and significantly all the more profoundly into the

underlying speculations and models that endeavor to clarify why

individuals might possibly be fulfilled. This study recommended the

approaches to boost customer satisfaction, for example, enhancing

customer loyalty and determining customer grumblings.

This study gives suggestions to both scholastics and practitioners.

Future study will be required to explore mode of online customer

247
satisfaction that are proposed by Fournier and Mick (1999), including

satisfaction-as-happiness, satisfaction-as-joy, what's more

dissatisfaction-as-astonishment. Future exploration investigating

buyer satisfaction of unadulterated play vs. multi-channel is likewise

prone to be productive. Different issues that build the level of

relationship between or inside online customers and businesses will

likewise be a future exploration. Endeavors toward the successful

determination of customer issues serve as the premise for long haul

item and effective CRM.

The results of this research have several important implications for

managers. The research provides a systematic outline of the different

CRM activities that occur at retail outlets of oil companies and the

various components of the relationships can be used by the managers

to enhance the customer interactions. Thus, a company could use the

approach to identify key activities that must be implemented to be

successful, and an evaluation of the activities can provide a means for

comparing their level of implementation with that of competitors.

One of the key issues in front of the organizations is to create value for

their customer through the marketing process. Ambler (2000);

Blattberg, Getz, and Thomas (2001); Keller and Lehmann (2001);

Rust,Zeithaml, and Lemon (2000). Though the core purpose of the

Enhancement of the services by the Company is to deliver value to the

customers, yet, various market-oriented programs should do

248
everything in their power to enhance brand equity of the company and

must take it to a level of customer equity. The introduction of various

brands such as Club-HP, Servo-Premium, Speed etc which are brand

equity of the company, needs to be taken to the level of customer

equity. The company’ offering on these brand basket is to translate the

benefits at the customer level and customers must see the value

offering on these brands in order to complete the process of their

relationship with the companies..

CRM will be more technique driven, and therefore have the capacity to

focus on what customer anticipates from the relationship. CRM

technology will return to the part of a supporting instrument. The 'last

take' for the CEOS will be that CRM is and might be a vehicle for

social change and incorporation in the association. In short, a genuine

CRM empowers a relationship perspective of the world that goes past

customers, incorporates multi-parts and encourages corporate

renaissance.

This study is exploratory in nature. The explanation behind this is the

relative oddity of the item of the study (CRM activities) and the relative

absence of key hypothesis portraying such activities. Consequently,

there still are a lot of undiscovered exploration opportunities. With

developing premium and huge ventures being made in CRM systems,

a few exact opportunities will rise.

249
It is hard to measurably test the proposed CRM model in a

genuine/false arrangement. The present model is in its available

structure a calculated model. In any case, diverse parts of it would

loan themselves well to quantitative tests. This is particularly

important when it goes to the distinctive supporting conditions said in

the model.

The main future opportunities for the sector include assessing the

feasibility of using non conventional fuels such as coal bed methane,

hydrogen and bio diesel. The sector must also lay greater focus on

developing midstream infrastructure, with specific attention on city

gas distribution networks, and the construction of

Strategic storage facilities as a safeguard against short term

disruptions in fuel supply.

250
 REFERENCES

1. Peppers, Rogers and Dorf, (1999), “Is Your Company Ready for

One-to-OneMarketing”Harvard Business Review, 77, p.p 151–

160.

2. Buttle, F., (2001), “The CRM Value Chain,” Marketing Business,

p.p 52–55 Retrieved January 25, 2008.

3. Gartner group. (2008), “Worldwide CRM Software Market to

Grow 14% in2008(online), Available at http:// www.gartner.com

/it/ page.jsp?id=653307.

4. Cockburn, P. 2000, 'CRM for Profit', Telecommunications,

Dedham, December, vol. 34no. 12, pp. 89-92.

5. Reichheld, F., 1996. The Loyalty Effect: the Hidden Force

Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value. Harvard Business

School Press, Boston.

6. Gamble, P., Merlin, S. and Neil W. 2000, Up Close and Personal:

Customer Relationship Marketing at Work, Kogan page, London.

7. Anton, John 1999, Customer Relationship Management,

Prentice Hall, Upper SaddleRiver, NJ.

8. Sheth, .Iagdish N. and Atul Parvatiyar (2000), Handbook of

Relationship Marketing, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

9. Agrawal, M.L (2002), ‘Customer relationship management (CRM)

and corporate renaissance, 2002

251
10. Reichheld, F.F. and Teal, T. (1996), The Loyalty Effect: The

Hidden Force behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value,

Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

11. Groonroos, Christian 1994, "From Marketing Mix to

Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing'

, Marketing Decision, 32(2),4-20.

12. Christopher, M., Payne, A., & Ballantyne, D. (2002).

Relationship marketing: Creating stakeholder value. Oxford:

Butterworth Heinemann.

13. Jain. R. & Jain S. 2001. Managing Relationships for Effective

Supply Chain Management in P. Radhakrishnan, S.Palaniswami,

P. V. Mohanram and J .Kanchana (Eds), Logistics and Supply

Chain Management, New Delhi: Allied.

14. Gruen, Thomas W., John O. Summers, and Frank Acito (2000),

“Relationship Marketing Activities, Commitment, and

Membership Behaviors in Professional Associations,” Journal of

Marketing, 64 (3), 34–49.

15. Slater, Stanley F. and John C. Narver, “Superior Customer

Value and Business Performance: The Strong Evidence for a

Market-Driven Culture,” Marketing Science Institute,

Cambridge, MA.

252
16. Nevin John R. (1995), .'Relationship Marketing and Distribution

Channels: Exploring Fundamental Issues," journal of the

Academy Marketing Sciences, (Fall), pp. 327-334.

17. Vavra, Terry G. (1992), Aftermarketing: How to Keep Customers

for Life through Relationship Marketing, Home.wood, IL:

Business One-Irwin.

18. Shani, D. and Chalasani, S. (1992), ‘‘Exploiting niches using

relationship marketing’’, The Journal of Consumer Marketing,

Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 33-42.

19. McKenna, Regis (1991), Relationship Marketing: Successful

Strategies for the Age of the Customers. Addison- Wesley

Publishing Company.

20. Berry, L. (1995), "Relationships marketing of services, growing

interest, emerging perspectives", Journal of Academy of

Marketing Science, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 236-45.

21. Berry, L.L. 1983, Relationship Marketing, in Berry, L.L.

Shostack. GL and Upha, GD (Eds), Emerging Perspectives in

Service Marketing, American Marketing Association, Chicago, II,

pp.- 25-8.

253
22. McGarry, G. 1953, 'Some Viewpoints in Marketing', Journal of

Marketing, 17(3), pp-36-43.

23. Desatnick, Robert L. and Denis H. Detzel, Managing to Keep the

Customer, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, p. 8.

24. Band, W.A., Creating Value for Customers, John Wiley & Son,

Toronto, pp. 11-12.

25. Ganeshan, Shankar 1994, 'Determination of Long- Term

Orientation in Buyer-Seller Relationships', Journal of Marketing,

58 (April), pp-1-19.

26. Storbacka, Kaj (2000), "Customer Profitability: Analysis and

Design Issues," in Handbook of Relationship Marketing, Jagdish

N. Sheth and Atul Parvatiyar, Eds., Thousand Oaks, GA: Sage

Publications, pp. 565-586.

27. Carratu, V. (1987) Commercial Counterfeiting, in Murphy, J.

(Ed.), Branding: A KeyMarketing Tool. The Macmillan Press Ltd.,

London.

28. Kotler, P. (1990), Presentation at the Trustees Meeting of the

Marketing Science Institutein November 1990, Boston.

29. Kotler, P. (1972), A Generic Concept of Marketing, Journal of

Marketing, Vol. 36 April, pp. 46-54.

254
30. Bagozzi, R. P. (1974) Marketing as an Organized Behavioral

System of Exchanges,Journal of Marketing, Vol. 38, October, pp.

77-81.

31. Bagozzi, R. P. (1994) Interactions In Small Groups: The Social

Relations Model, inSheth, J.N. and Parvatiyar, A. (Eds);

Relationship Marketing: Theory, Methods andApplications, Center

for Relationship Marketing, Emory University, Atlanta.

32. Kotler, P. (1994), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning,

Implementation, andControl. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood

Cliffs, New Jersey.

33. Sheth, Jagdish N. and Atul Parvatiyar (1995b), "The Evolution of

Relationship Marketing," International Business Review, 4 (4),

pp. 397-418.

34. Bitner, M.J. (1995), "Building service relationships: its all about

promises", Journal of Academy of Marketing Science., Vol. 23

No. 4, pp. 246-51.

35. Frazier, Gary L., Robert E. Spekman, and Charles O'Neal (1988),

"Just-in-Time Exchange Systems and Industrial Marketing,"

journal/ of Marketing. 52 (October), pp. 52-67.

36. Naidu G.M., Atul Parvatiyar, Jagdish N. Sheth and Lori

Westgate (1999), "Does Relationship Marketing Pay? An

Empirical Investigation of Relationship Marketing Practices in

Hospitals," 46 (3), pp. 207-218.

255
37. Bickert, Jock (1992), "The Database Revolution," Target

Marketing, (May), pp.14-18.

38. Shani, D. and Chalasani, S. (1992), ‘‘Exploiting niches using

relationship marketing’’, The Journal of Consumer Marketing,

Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 33-42.

39. Jackson, Barbara B. (1985), Winning and Keeping Industrial

Customers: The Dynamics of Customer Relationships, Lexington,

MA: D.C. Heath and Company.

40. Doyle, Stephen X. and Roth George Thomas (1992), "Selling and

Sales Management in Action: The Use of Insight Coaching to

Improve Relationship Selling," journal of Personal Selling &Sales

Management, (Winter), pp. 59-64.

41. McKenna, Regis (1991), Relationship Marketing: Successful

Strategies for the Age of the Customers. Addison- Wesley

Publishing Company.

42. Morgan , Robert M. and Hunt, Shelby D. 1994, 'The

Commitment - Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing', Journal

of Marketing, 58 (3), pp-20-38.

43. Dwyer, F. Robert, Paul H. Schurr, and Sejo Oh (1987),

“Developing Buyer–Seller Relationships,” Journal of Marketing,

51 (April), 11–27.

256
44. Kaplan, R. S. & Norton, D. (1992, January-February), “The

Balanced Scorecard –Measures that Drive Performance.”

Harvard Business Review, 70, 71-79.

45. Srivastava, R. K., T. A. Shervani, and L. Fahey (1998), “Market-

Based Assets and Shareholder Value,” Journal of Marketing, 62

(1), 2-18.

46. Reichheld, F. and Sasser, W.E. (1990), "Zero defections: quality

comes to service", Harvard Business Review, Vol. 68 No. 5, pp.

32-40.

47. Fox, Tricia, and Steve Stead (2001), “Customer Relationship

Management: Delivering the Benefits,” White Paper, CRM (UK)

Ltd. and SECOR Consulting Ltd., Stirling and Surrey, UK.

48. Rust RT, Zahorik AJ & Keinigham TL, 1996, Service Marketing,

HarperCollins, New York Taylor SE, 1991, Asymmetrical Effects

of Positive and Negative Events: The Mobilization- Minimization

Hypothesis, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 110, No. 1, 67-85

49. Homburg, Christian and Christian Pflesser (2000), “A Multiple-

Layer Model of Market-Oriented Organizational Culture:

Measurement Issues and Performance Outcomes,” Journal of

Marketing Research, 37 (November), 449–62.

50. Gupta, Sunil, Donald R. Lehmann, and Jennifer Ames Stuart

(2004), “Valuing Customers,” Journal of Marketing Research, 40

(February), 7–18.

257
51. Jayachandran, Satish, Kelly Hewett, and Peter Kaufman (2004),

“Customer Response Capability in a Sense-and-Respond Era:

The Role of Customer Knowledge Process,” Journal of the

Academy of Marketing Science, 32 (Summer), 219–33.

52. Mithas, Sunil, M.S. Krishnan, and Claes Fornell (2005), “Why

Do Customer Relationship Management Applications Affect

Customer Satisfaction?” Journal of Marketing, 69 (October),

201–209.

53. Ryals, Lynette, and Simon Knox (2001), “Cross-Functional

Issues in the Implementation of Relationship Marketing

Through Customer Relationship Management,” European

Management Journal, 19 (5), 534–542.

54. Gustafsson, Anders, Michael D. Johnson, and Inger Roos

(2005), “The Effects of Customer Satisfaction, Relationship

Commitment Dimensions, and Triggers on Customer Retention,”

Journal of Marketing, 69 (October), 210–18.

55. Payne, A. F. T., & Frow, P. (2005). A Strategic Framework for

Customer Relationship Management. Cranfield University

Working Paper, in review.

258
56. Energy Handbook, Von Nostrand Reinhold Company - Robert L.

Loftness

57. Handbook of Energy Engineering , The Fairmont Press Inc -

Albert Thumann

58. Indian Planning commission statistics

59. Adams, F. Gerard and Shachmurove, Yochanan (2008),

”Modeling and forecasting energyconsumption in China:

Implications for Chinese energy demand and imports in

2020”,Energy Economics, 30, 1263-1278.

60. Chemin, Elodie Sentenac (2012), “Is the price effect of fuel

consumption symmetric? Someevidence from an empirical

study”, Energy Policy, 41, 59-65.

61. "Global 500". Fortune Global 500. Retrieved 31 Aug 2013.

62. "Shareholding Pattern". Indian Oil. 31 December 2013.

Retrieved 27 January 2014.

63. SAMANWAYA RAUTRAY AND PHEROZE L. VINCENT (March 4,

2011). "Feather in cap for graft fighters". The Telegraph.

Retrieved 2012-04-26.

64. Parikh, Jyoti., Purohit, Pallav. And Maitra, Pallavi., (2007),

“Demand projections of petroleumproducts and natural gas in

India”, Energy, 32, 1827-1837.

65. Bhanumurthy, N.R., Surajit Das & Sukanya Bose, (2012) “Oil

Price Shock, Pass-through Policyand its Impact on India” NIPFP

working paper No. 2012-99, March.

259
66. Chaturvedi Committee Report, (2008) “Report of the High-

Powered Committee on FinancialPosition of the Oil Companies”,

Govt. of India.

67. Economic Division, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (2012),

“Basic Statistics on IndianPetroleum & Natural Gas 2010-11”

68. A White Paper on the Trends in Electricity and Other Utility

Industries, Utilities Domain Competency Group (DCG),March

2000.

69. Turning Down the Heat on the Utility Call Center, Meta Group

Research, January 17, 2002.

70. CRM Profile: Deployment Across Industries, Forrester Report,

July 2002.

71. Smith, L. Dennis. Where the Upgrades Are, Energy Customer

Management, May/June 2002.

72. Business Monitor International: India Oil and Gas Report, 2012

73. Dougan S., Customer Relationship Management Strategies In

Financial Services, London, Business Insights Ltd., 2004

74. Berry, L. (1983). “Relationship Marketing”, in Berry, L.

Shostack, G. and Upah, G. (editors), Emerging Perspectives in

Services Marketing, American Marketing Association, Chicago,

IL.

75. Christopher, M., Payne, A. and Ballantyne, D. (2002).

Relationship Marketing: Creating Stakeholder Value, Butterwort-

Heinemann, Oxford.

260
76. Geib, M. and Riempp, G. (2002) Customer Knowledge

Management, In:

GeschäftsprozessorientiertesWissensmanagement - Effektive

Wissensnutzung bei der Planung und Umsetzung von

Geschäftsprozessen (Eds.,Abecker, A., Hinkelmann, K., Maus,

H. and Müller, H. J.), Springer, Berlin et al., pp. 393-417.

77. Gibbert, M., Leibold, M. and Probst, G. (2002) Five Styles of

Customer Knowledge Management, and How Smart Companies

Use Them To Create Value, European Management Journal, 20,

5, 459 - 469.

78. Wang, Y. and Lo, H.-P. (2004) Customer-focused Performance

and its Key Resource-based Determinants: An

IntegratedFramework, Cr, 14, 1&2.

79. von Krogh, G., Roos, J. and Slocum, K., "An Essay on Corporate

Epistemology", Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 15, No.

Special Issue: Strategy: Search for New Para-digms, Summer,

1994, 1994, pp. 53-71.

80. von Foerster, H., "Principles of self-organization in socio-

managerial context", in: Ulrich, H. and Probst, G. J. B. (Eds.),

Self-organization and Management of Social Systems, Springer-

Verlag, Berlin, 1984, pp. 2-24.

81. Wenger, E., Communities of Practice: Learning, Mean-ing, and

Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997.

261
82. Reichheld, Frederick and Thomas Teal (2000), The Loyalty Effect

. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

83. Verhoef, Peter C. (2003), "Understanding the Effect of Customer

Relationship Management Efforts on Customer Retention and

Customer Share Development," Journal of Marketing, 67

(October), 30-45.

84. Oliver, Richard L. (1999), "Whence Consumer Loyalty?" Journal

of Marketing, 63 (Special Issue), 33-44.

85. Gamble, P., Stone, M. and Woodcock, N. (1999) Customer

relationship marketing: up close and personal. London: Kogan

Page; Jain, S.C.(2005). CRM shifts the paradigm. Journal of

Strategic Marketing , Vol.13, December, pp. 275–291; Evans, M.,

O’Malley, L. and Patterson,M. (2004) Exploing direct and

customer relationship marketing . London:Thomson.

86. Gustafsson Anders, Johnson Michael D.. & Roos Inger. 2005,

'The Effects ofCustomer Satisfaction, Relationship Commitment

Dimensions, and Triggers on Customer Retention'. American

Marketing Association, ISSN:0022-2429 (print),

1547-7185 (electronic).

87. Kotler Philip. 2003. Marketing Management. Pearson Education.

Inc. Fifthedition.

88. Yeung, M.C.H. and Ennew, C.T. (2001) Measuring the impact of

customer satisfaction on profitability: a sectoral analysis.

262
 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing

10(2), 106–16.

89. Bolton, R.N., Lemo, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C. (2002), “The

theoretical underpinnings of customer asset management: a

framework and propositions for future research”, ERIM Report

Series Research in Management, ERS-2002-80- MKT, ERIM,

Rotterdam.

90. Zikmund, W.G. (2003). Business research methods. 7th edition.

Mason: Thomson South-Western.

91. Rootman, C. (2006). The influence of customer relationship

management on the service quality of banks. Unpublished

master‟s dissertation. Port Elizabeth: Nelson Mandela

Metropolitan University.

92. Reinartz, Werner, Manfred Krafft, and Wayne D. Hoyer (2004),

“The Customer Relationship Management Process: Its

Measurement and Impact on Performance,” Journal of

Marketing Research, 41 (August), 293–305.

93. Kumar. Nirmalya, Lisa K, Sheer, and Jan-Benedict E.M.

Steenkamp (1995), "The Effects of Perceived Interdependence on

Dealer Attitudes," Journal of Marketing Research, 32 (August),

pp. 348-356.

94. Day, George S. and C. Van den Bulte (2002), “Superiority in

Customer Relationship Management: Consequences for

263
 Competitive Advantage and Performance,” working paper,

Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

95. Albright, C.S. Winston, W.L. and Zappe, C. (2003) Data Analysis

& Decision Making. 2nd Edition. California: Thomson -

Brooks/Cole.

96. Keller, G. and Warrack, B. (2003) Statistics for Management and

Economics. 6th Edition. California: Thomson - Brooks/Cole.

97. Hall, Graham (1994) "Factors Distinguishing Survivors From

Failures Amongst Small Firms in the UK

Construction Sector" Journal of Management.

Studies Vol.31, No 5, September, pp 737-760.

98. Morphet, Clive S (1990/1) "Applying Multiple Reg ression

Analysis to the Forecasting of Grocery Store Sales: An

Application and Critical Appraisal" The

International Review of Retail. Distribution and

Cos turner Research. Vol. I, No.3, pp 329-351.

99. Justin and Litschert, Robert J. (1995)

"Environment-Strategy Relationship and Its

Performance Implications: An Empirical Study of

The Chinese Electronics Industry" Strategic

Management Journal. Vol. 15, pp 1-20.

264
 THE QUESTIONNAIRE

Retail Outlet Name & Company: __________________________________

Dear Manager/Owner,
I am conducting a research and my chosen topic is “Customer
Relationship Marketing Practices in Indian Oil Corporation”. Part of
my research consists of a interview and survey of the leading
dealers/managers of petroleum and the information provided by you
will be used for academic purpose only. I would appreciate your
responses to the following questions. In order that the results
accurately represent all the stations, it is very important that each
questionnaire be completed.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could cooperate by answering
the questions and interview by myself or my representatives. It must
be stressed that any information or assistance that you give will be
kept confidential and will be used for academic purposes only. If you
are unsure, please answer to the best of your ability. Please tick the
box whenever applicable. Please write in Capital letters.
1. OBSERVATION DATA
Q 1. Number of islands

_______________

Q2. Number of pumps

_______________

Q3. Placement on the street

[ ] J Corner lot
[ ] Exposed center lot
[ ] Hidden center lot
[ ] Open space (No other building nearby)

Q4. Where is the station situated?

[ ] Business district (in town area or main street)
[ ] On a highway/motorway

265
 [ ] Residential area
[ ] Near shopping center
[ ] Other,(specify)____________________

Q5. The type of neighbourhood surrounding the station?

[ ] Business area
[ ] Mix of business and residential
[ ] Residential
[ ] Mix of residential and industry

Q6. The traffic speed infront of the service station?

[ ] Less than 20km/hour
[ ] Between 20 - 50 km/hour
[ ] Between 50 - 80 km/hour
[ ] More than 80 km/hour

2. BUSINESS BACKGROUND

Q 1 Who established this station?

[ ] Myself
[ ] My parent
[ ] Someone else
[ ] Owned by oil company or other organization
[ ] Other (specify):_______________

Q2. Roughly, how many years of petroleum industry experience

Before became the dealer?

_______________ Years

Q 3 How much capacity of the petrol in your storage facilities?

_______________ Liters

Q 4. How much inventory of non-fuel products in your station now?

MR_______________________

3. PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY

Q 1. The commission that you received from the oil company for one
liter sale of petrol for
Leaded __________
Unleaded __________
Diesel __________

266
 Q 2. How much capital did you invest when you started in this
Retail business?

MR_______________________
Q3. What is the estimated value of your business asset now?

MR_______________________

Q 4. What is the total sales of your business in a month?

MR_______________________

Q 5. What is the number of liters petroleum sold in a month?

MR_______________________

4. FACTORS RANKING - BUYING DECISION IN PURCHASING

PETROL/DIESEL FROM THE PETROL PUMP.

Factors Rank

1 Convenient location of the outlet as per my travel plan

----------------

2 Availability of Quality fuel/ branded fuels

----------------

3 Quantity of fuel I want to purchase

----------------

4 Ambience of the station

----------------

5 Availability of Multiple modes of payment like (credit,

debit or cash) ----------------

6 Brand/ company name

----------------

7 Availability of Value added services ( Servicing, Stores

etc) ----------------

5. DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Q 1. Your age: ________years

Q2 . Sex:
[ ] Male
[ ] Female

Q 3. Marital Status:
[ ] Married
267
 [ ] Divorced widowed
[ ] Bachelorlnever married

Q 4. Your education ________________

Q 5. Your profession ________________

Q6 . We would welcome any further comments either about this

questionnaire or about matters relating to your business.

Q 7. Number of population where the station situated

________________________________

Q 8. Traffic volume(Average number of vehicles per hour)

________________________________

268
SERVICE STATION CHARACTERISTICS VARIABLES

269